FTAs have not contributed to rise in trade deficits: Com Min

The Commerce Ministry today said free trade agreement (FTAs) have not contributed to the increase in trade deficits with "some countries".
Though the preferential imports have been increasing from the period 2009-10 to 2014-15, they are still not significant, ranging from 5.9 per cent of total imports under the India-Malaysia comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) to 29.9 per cent of total imports under the India-Korea comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) during 2014-15.
"This clearly indicates the preferential imports under FTAs have not contributed to the increase in trade deficits with some countries," the commerce ministry said in its year-end review statement.

The implications of the such agreements on India can be gauged from the regular impact analysis conducted by the Department of Commerce.
One of the methods of gauging this impact of FTAs on overall trade is through preferential trade data.
In this context, the department has analysed the broad trend of India's preferential imports under the FTAs with countries including Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, ASEAN and Malaysia.

Some section of industry including exporters have raised concerns over these free trade pacts. They have stated that these agreements have benefited more to the partner countries.
A separate set of analysis on trade in products where preferences have been exchanged under the India-ASEAN, India-Japan and India-Korea FTAs was also carried out by external agencies such as the Centre for WTO Studies and the National Centre for Trade Information (NCTI), it said.

"The analysis notes the increase in imports of intermediates and capital goods on lines where preferences have been granted. Similarly, there has been no significant increase in imports of consumer goods.
"This could thus be attributable to use of cost effective inputs for domestic manufacturing," it said.
Talking about plantation sector, it said that a policy for development of natural rubber sector is being formulated to address demands of the industry and growers.
A national level steering committee of departments, and research institutions in the public and private sector has been formed to coordinate and fast-track the research initiatives in the area of white stem borer and to address the problem of fall in productivity of arabica coffee, it said.

Further to include states in the process of boosting India's overall exports, it said 15 states have prepared their export strategy and 28 have intimated appointment of Export Commissioners.
The Commerce Ministry said so far it has concluded 11 such
pacts and five limited scope preferential trade agreements.
The ministry has also said it aimed at increasing the exports of goods and services to about USD 900 billion by 2019-20 and raise India's share in world exports from present 3.5 per cent.
In 2014-15, the country's exports stood at USD 310.5 billion and the share in world exports is 2 per cent.

The Department of Commerce also said it has taken several steps to improve Ease of Doing Business in the country. The new foreign trade policy has brought about reduction in the number of documents required for export and import from 7 and 10 respectively to 3 each now, it said today.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, it said, is working on more steps with regard to ease of doing business such as online issuance of Export Obligation Discharge Certificate and message exchange with CBDT for PAN.