TRADE NEGOTIATION

 INTRODUCTION

• The recent years have seen intense bilateral and multilateral negotiations among different nations in the international arena. India, for example, has already become part of 19 such concluded agreements and is currently negotiating more than two dozens of such proposals. 
• Events such as Britain planning an exit from the European Union, the US deliberations on the impact of NAFTA, and many other unpredictable developments in the trade front make trade negotiations a highly relevant topic in Economics. 
• International trade negotiations, especially the ones aimed at formulation of international trade rules, are complex interactive processes engaged in by countries having competing objectives. Trade negotiations are not just face to face discussions; rather they are multilevel or network games and involve intricate and time consuming processes. 
• They usually involve many parties who have conflicting interests and objectives. It is not national governments alone who are the stakeholders in a trade negotiation. Many interest groups, lobbying groups, pressure groups and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) exert their influence on the process.
•  As anyone can guess, the positions taken by each of the negotiating parties would represent their underlying agenda of interests. 
• For example, in trade negotiations, when one of the parties seems to be bargaining for market access through reduction in tariffs, the other (s) may be clamouring on the issue of possible grant of protection to domestic industries. 
• Before we go into the discussion on multilateral trade negotiations and the related institutions, it is relevant to understand the nature of regional as well as free trade agreements which evolve through negotiations