APEC Membership — how much will India benefit?

India's wait for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) berth has to wait till 2010 after the group's leaders decided to take up the issue of membership only after three years.

It is really surprising that India, who is undoubtedly a major economic super-house, was not included as it could have gone a long way in making the regional grouping truly inclusive.

Amidst all this, India has also been blamed for holding up the Doha round of talks, with the US alleging that India appears to have a low level of ambition to freer market access.

It's like the pot calling the kettle black. I strongly feel that if the US and others in the developed bloc were genuinely supporters of free trade as they would have us all believe, then the stalled Doha trade talks would have been over by now.

Instead of blaming the developing nations, they should give up trade-distorting policies first and also take into account the sensibilities of the nations who have to consider the issues of the poor farmers too while negotiating.

India's participation in debating regional issues and removing trade barriers cannot be hijacked by certain nations, who, instead of taking part in the ongoing integration process, rely on their allies in the region to skew developments in East Asia. India today has done more towards striving towards the goal of trade without barriers than several other nations.

I get a feeling that APEC is yet to have a strongly formulated economic agenda. Several nations aspiring to be a member of APEC are in actuality politically motivated. Initially, this influential grouping had trade liberalisation as its main agenda, but in recent times, security issues have dominated. Despite the fact that the grouping is influential because the APEC countries account for over 45% of the global GDP, the economic agenda is still weak and is yet to make an impression.

As such I have real doubts about how much the entry into the group will help India. Without doubt it would indeed be a political victory. But is it what India wants?