New Delhi, July 25 :

India will pursue bilateral trade agreements with the European Union, Japan and other countries after the collapse of the World Trade Organization talks, a top official said on Tuesday.

Commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath told reporters he was confident the collapse would not limit the expansion of India’s economy, which is growing at around eight per cent a year.

“We are looking at, we are examining, economic cooperation agreements with the European Union. We are looking at cooperation agreements with Japan,” he said.

Leading members of the World Trade Organization on Monday called a halt to more than five years of trade liberalization talks, saying differences over farm subsidies proved unbridgeable.

The EU criticized US intransigence over agricultural subsidies for the breakdown, while the US blamed Brazil and India for being inflexible on cutting barriers to industrial imports and the EU for refusing to make deeper cuts in its farm import tariffs.