BUSINESS must continue to press governments in the US and Europe to restraining trade and investment, Mr Alan McCarthy, chief executive of An Bord Trachtala, said. The governments, he added, should also develop commercial and economic activities.

Speaking at the US Chamber of Commerce in Ireland lunch yesterday, he argued that the administrations in the US and Europe should be encouraged to free up trade and investment between the two geographic areas. He told his audience that free trade areas (FTAs) were not the same as free trade.

"A real worry for world trade is the rate at which FTAs are being signed, 26 in the last 20 months, which is more than half the total of FTAs agreed since the multilateral system was founded 47 years ago, he said. What was at issue, he stressed, was not free trade agreements but the "thousands of obstacles, regulations and restrictions" that operated in the US and Europe.

Noting that Ireland had a strong role to play within the EU, especially during the Irish presidency, he made a number of suggestions

. There should he a convergence and modernisation of customs practices.

. Shipping and transportation should have all restrictions removed.

. Non-tariff barriers would have to be reformed.

. Entrenched national preference procedures, which have stifled competition for decades, should be tackled.