INDIA’S ENGAGEMENT IN FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS (FTAS)
- India has always stood for an open, equitable, predictable, non-discriminatory and rule based international trading system. FTAs, in India‘s point of view, are the building blocks’ towards the overall objective of trade liberalization and should complement the multilateral trading system
- As a result, so far India has concluded 10 Free Trade Agreements, 5 Limited scope Preferential Trade Agreements and is in the process of negotiating / expanding 18 more Agreements.
TERMINOLOGY
| Preferential Trading Agreement (PTA) | Tariff liberalization on a limited number of lines e.g. India-Mercosur PTA. | ||||
| Free Trade Agreement (FTA) | Elimination of Tariffs on items covering substantial bilateral trade between the partner countries e.g. India – Sri Lanka FTA. | ||||
| Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) | CECA or CEPA or BTIA terms are used to describe Agreements which consist of an integrated package of Agreement on Goods, Services, and Investment. | ||||
| Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) | Mutual Recognition, Intellectual Property etc. e.g. India—Korea CEFA. | ||||
| Broad based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) | |||||
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FTAS ALREADY IN FORCE |
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| No. | Name of the Agreement | Year of Signing | Year of Implementation | ||
| 1. | India-Sri Lanka FTA | 1998 | 2000 | ||
| 2. | Agreement on SAFTA (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives) | 2004 | 2006 | ||
| 3. | Revised Agreement of Cooperation between India and Nepal to control unauthorized trade | 2009 | 2009 | ||
| 4. | India-Bhutan Agreement on Trade Commerce and Transit | 1972
|
Renewed periodical, with mutually agreed modifications | ||
| 5. | India-Thailand FTA
(Early Harvest Scheme) |
2004 | 2004 | ||
| 6. | India-Singapore CECA | 2005 | 2005 | ||
| 7. | India-ASEAN-CECA-Trade in Goods Agreement
(Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) |
2009 | 2010
(Came into force between India & Laos, Philippines and Cambodia in 2011) |
||
| 8. | India-South Korea CEPA | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| 9. | India-Japan CEPA | 2011 | 2011 | ||
| 10 | India-Malaysia CECA | 2011 | 2011 | ||
| PTAs ALREADY IN FORCE | |||
| No. | Name of the Agreement | Year of Signing | Year of Implementation |
| 1. | Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA)
(Bangladesh, China, India, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka) |
1975
(Revised Agreement signed in 2005 |
1976 |
| 2. | Global System of Trade Preferences(GSTP)
(Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Romania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tanzania, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe) |
1988 | 1989 |
| 3. | India-Afghanistan | 2003 | 2003 |
| 4. | India-MERCOSUR Block | 2004 | 2009 |
| 5. | India-Chile | 2006 | 2007 |
