The Commerce Ministry’s Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) will “very” soon start a course on negotiations, as this is an important skill set required in areas like free trade agreements, a top government official said on Saturday.
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal also said that Abhijit Das-authored “Strategies in GATT and WTO Negotiations” book can be a starting textbook in the Center for WTO Studies and IIFT.
While releasing Das’s book, he said there was previously no publication that provided a comprehensive perspective on trade negotiations.
“When we look at these issues in the Department of Commerce, we always felt that there is a need for a negotiation course, which IIFT will be starting very soon,” the secretary said.
With the increasing number of free trade agreements, negotiating skills are going to be key in the coming days as it involves officials from different departments. India is negotiating several agreements including with the US, the UK, Oman, Australia, Peru, and European Union (EU).
“…On a daily basis, I’m finding it very difficult to see that our negotiators, you know, can be as good as the negotiators, which are coming from the USTR office or from the European Commission’s office. They have served for 25 to 30 years in their job…They do only one job throughout their career…We really find that although our guys are knowledgeable, they are very dedicated, but perhaps, you know, there is a dearth of negotiating skills,” Barthwal said.
Talking about the book, he said, “If I give it to my negotiators, they will know from where to begin. So that is the beauty of this book.”.
“We felt that there is a need for a good course curriculum on negotiations. And the negotiations, rightly pointed out, are not simply the multilateral negotiation, but also, many times the plurilateral negotiations..and the flavor of the day is the bilateral negotiations”.
Das has more than two decades of experience in international trade in various capacities, including five years in trade policy making in the Government of India and twelve years as the Head of the Centre for WTO Studies, New Delhi.
He has participated directly in many multilateral and FTA negotiations, including the WTO Doha Round.