NEW DELHI: India and the US, which are on opposite sides of WTO's multilateral trade negotiations, should examine a bilateral agreement to boost two-way commerce, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said here. "This is something which we should examine...

The world wonders why the oldest and the largest democracies in the world cannot have an agreement in trade," Nath said at the India Economic Summit here. He was responding to a question on whether an India-US free trade pact was feasible. He commended the US delegate at the Summit for "thinking of this" idea.

The delegate said he wanted to float the proposal in the US Congress. India and the US are two key players in World Trade Organization's Doha Round negotiations, an agreement on which has remained elusive so far. Developed nations such as the US want developing countries to open up market for industrial goods, while India and other emerging nations insist that rich countries, particularly the US, cut farm subsidies.

The deadlock in the WTO has prompted many countries, including the US as well as India to go for bilateral or regional trade pacts. India is negotiating several agreements, including one with the European Union. Nath said a rule-based multilateral trading system was as important to India as it was to the US and EU. "We need it more than any other stronger player," he said. While admitting that US has sensitivities in agriculture, Nath said, "We in India also have sensitivities of 650 million people who are in the farming sector. We cannot have a subsidized market access which destabilizes our farmers."