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, 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 Gschwend, 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.
