Four European nations with a combined population smaller than Delhi NCR— but a GDP that rivals India’s, recently signed one of the most ambitious yet under-reported trade pact with India. The four countries are Iceland, Lik-Tun-Stine (Liechtenstein), Norway, and Switzerland who together make up the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
The deal worth $100 billion in investments holds out the promise of generating one million new jobs. A breath of fresh air indeed, especially when countries like the United States and China are weaponising trade and globalisation is under threat.
Is this then the dawn of a new trade order?
Will it lay the foundations for building a new kind of plurilateral and rules-based trade order?
To answer all this and more StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Roger Ksh-Vend, Head of the World Trade Division, State Secretariat of Economic Affairs in Switzerland on Capital Calculus.
Anil Padmanabhan has been a journalist for the last 36 years. He has worked in various capacities in several publications including Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Press Trust of India, Business Standard, Mint and was based in New York for India Today. He was a Nieman Fellow in 2001. He tweets at @capitalcalculus.
