India should open up economy further

By Alex Singleton | 8 September 2005

Peter Mandelson has been seeking to put the bra war debacle behind him with his visit to India, as reported by India's Economic Times:

India should open up its economy further to achieve higher growth, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said... Integration into the global economy would benefit India and this has already been demonstrated in the developments taking place in the past decade, he said while speaking at the India-EU business summit.

India-EU trade has grown briskly to touch €33 billion but countries like South Korea and Russia do more business with Europe. These countries have a much smaller population as compared to India, Mr Mandelson pointed out. India should aim at a much bigger role for itself in the global economy, he said.

"I believe sincerely that India will be a winner from greater openness. The opportunity to achieve that lies in the Doha Round, and the chance to materialise India's essential domestic reforms", the EU trade commissioner said. He urged India to join with EU to act with boldness and make the case for greater openness to the rest of the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

And in a clear attempt to distance himself from European protectionists, Mandelson on Tuesday gave a blistering attack on the attitudes of France's government:

The European Union's top trade official mocked French protectionist policies as futile effort to build an economic 'Maginot Line.'

Peter Mandelson criticized Paris' opposition to admitting non-French EU workers, opposing buyouts by non-French companies and demanding tariffs and quotas on behalf of farmers and textile makers of French entities as being as futile as France's attempt to resist the Nazi invasion in 1940 with its fortified Maginot Line, the Telegraph reported Wednesday.