2006年VOA标准英语-India Pursuing Bilateral Trade Deals as World T

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
30 July 2006
 

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath speaks during a press conference in New Delhi, July 25, 2006  
  
India says it will concentrate on bilateral¹ and regional trade agreements following the collapse² of global trade talks at the World Trade Organization.  Experts say the focus is moving to individual deals to ensure that countries can still benefit from trade liberalization.

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India says it is confident its robust³ economy, growing by nearly eight percent a year, will not be hurt by the recent collapse of the World Trade Organization's global trade talks.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath says India remains⁴ committed to multilateral trade, but will now emphasize accords with other nations, and regions such as the European Union, to ensure that trade grows steadily⁵.

"At the same time, it is important that India's interests be protected and promoted to the extent that India is able to even engage more and more in the global economy," he said.

Nath says New Delhi is already discussing trade agreements with Japan and the EU.

Industry officials say India has been actively⁶ pursuing bilateral trade pacts⁸ in recent years with a host of countries, stretching from East Asia to the Middle East and Europe. Now, they say, such pacts will become India's primary goal.

The head of international trade policy at the Confederation of Indian Industry, T.S. Vishwanath, says many countries are interested in negotiating bilateral pacts with India, because it is now seen as one of the world's fastest-growing markets.

He says although India's largest markets have traditionally been Europe and the United States, New Delhi is now looking for closer economic integration⁹ with East Asian nations.

"We believe there is a lot of synergy with East Asia. We can work very closely with East Asia, the markets are closer, the competitiveness is nearly similar," he said. "We understand each other far better, we find that we will be able to work with them."

Indian officials say they are currently trying to sort out differences that have emerged over a free trade pact⁷ with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN. It has already signed individual agreements with Singapore and Thailand, both ASEAN members. Those deals have helped boost trade with these two countries by more than 30 percent in the last two years.

India's economy is growing rapidly, but its share of world trade is still a tiny one percent. Indian officials say that with exports growing by 20 percent a year, they hope to double that soon.

1 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

6 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

7 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

8 pacts   

条约( pact的名词复数 )； 协定； 公约

参考例句：

• Vassals can no longer accept one-sided defensive pacts (!). 附庸国不会接受单方面的共同防御协定。
• Well, they are EU members now and have formed solidarity pacts with members such as Poland. 他们现在已经是欧盟的一部分了并且他们和欧盟成员诸如波兰等以签署了合作协议。

9 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。