Cutting trade barriers imperative for all nations: Jaitley

TIL Desk/Business/Mumbai/ Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said trading across borders has become an “economic imperative of our times” and it is in every nation’s interest to bring down the trade barriers for the global economy.

“No nation can produce all products. It cannot specialise in all forms of services and therefore trading across barriers of nations is an economic imperative of our times and this is going to increase with times to come,” Jaitley said at an event here.

Addressing the 80th Session of the Policy Commission of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) through video conference, he said nations have realised that increase in trade gives impetus to the global economy as he advocated free trade.

“It is in the larger interest of every country to make sure that trade barriers are brought down to the extent possible,” he said at a time when protectionism is on the rise fuelled by the trade war initiated by the US against China and with the latter’s retaliation.