{"id":40539,"date":"2024-05-30T10:37:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T05:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=40539"},"modified":"2025-10-08T12:12:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:42:49","slug":"india-free-trade-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/india-free-trade-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"FTA Strategy Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>Status of India\u2019s FTAs<\/li>\n<li>What are the Stumbling Blocks for India\u2019s FTA Negotiations?<\/li>\n<li>Discussions at the FTA Strategy Meet<\/li>\n<li>Suggestions for India at the FTA Strategy Meet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A meeting was held to plan strategies for negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) at a time when the Commerce and Industry Ministry is engaged in discussions on several trade agreements.<\/li>\n<li>In the meeting, the commerce secretary led the discussion on how to prevent resource overuse and efficiently manage workload.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Status of India\u2019s FTAs:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA):<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>India signed a TEPA with a <strong>4-nation non-EU European Bloc<\/strong> of Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.<\/li>\n<li>The agreement included investment promotion, with <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/india-efta\/\" target=\"_blank\">European Free Trade Association (EFTA)<\/a>countries promising $100bn investment in 15 years, as long as high GDPs and other economic factors remain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>With UAE, Mauritius and Australia: <\/strong>During the last couple of years, the Commerce Ministry completed negotiations with UAE, Mauritius and a mini trade deal with Australia.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The India-UK FTA:<\/strong> It has made some progress, but it is unclear if it can be signed now, because of elections in both countries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>India-EU Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA):<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Negotiations for a BTIA began in 2007, but reached a deadlock in 2013 over a number of unresolved issues.<\/li>\n<li>Prospects for a BTIA dimmed further in 2017, when India terminated bilateral investment treaties (BIT) with dozens of countries, including most of the EU Member States.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reviewing a trade deal with ASEAN countries:<\/strong> With an eye on narrowing the trade gap, the Commerce Ministry is reviewing a trade deal with <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/asean\/\" target=\"_blank\">Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)<\/a> countries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): <\/strong>In 2019, India also walked out of the RCEP &#8211; 15 nation Asian and Australian FTA.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Talks with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU):<\/strong> Following the general elections, the government has made indications that it intends to reopen talks with the EEU, which is led by Russia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What are the Stumbling Blocks for India\u2019s FTA Negotiations?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The launch of <strong>India&#8217;s &#8220;Make in India&#8221; or &#8220;Atmanirbhar Bharat&#8221; policy<\/strong> is in opposition to discussions on free trade.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The agriculture sector<\/strong> has always been protected by India, and the majority of FTAs completely ignore it.<\/li>\n<li>India argues for <strong>strict Rules of Origin provisions<\/strong> because it is worried that Chinese goods may flood the markets through FTAs with other countries.<\/li>\n<li>India is being compelled to accept more foreign patents as a result of the growing concern over <strong>intellectual property rights <\/strong>as nations turn to R&amp;D as their main source of economic growth.<\/li>\n<li>Issues like <strong>human rights concerns and democratic freedoms <\/strong>are all permeating talks for the EU, EFTA, and now Canada.<\/li>\n<li>FTAs defeat the <strong>purpose of the WTO<\/strong>, and bypass global mechanisms for free trade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Discussions at the FTA Strategy Meet:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The discussions highlighted that relevant <strong>stakeholder consultations<\/strong> are essential for inclusive and supportive outcomes.<\/li>\n<li>It highlighted the <strong>importance of interdisciplinary support<\/strong> noting that successful negotiations require expertise in law, economics, data analytics and industry specific knowledge to enhance the negotiation process.<\/li>\n<li>Participants explored ways to <strong>utilise the resources of India\u2019s embassies or missions abroad<\/strong>, which would help understand the regulatory regimes of partner countries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The global trend towards partial de-globalisation <\/strong>and the use of industrial policy as a cover for protectionism and geopolitics, plays an important role in shaping trade policies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Suggestions for India at the FTA Strategy Meet:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>India should use FTAs to<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Build resilient supply chains,<\/li>\n<li>Focus on capacity building and interdisciplinary expertise, and<\/li>\n<li>Adapt to the current trend of partial de-globalisation and geopolitical influences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India should negotiate a dedicated chapter on Critical Minerals<\/strong> with such mineral-rich countries to protect India from abrupt disruption in the supply chain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Evolution and drafting of SOP<\/strong> and documentational or <strong>institutional memory<\/strong> must be in place before beginning future negotiations.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. What is the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)?<\/h3>\n<p>The EEU is an economic union of five post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The Treaty on the EEU was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and came into force on 1 January 2015.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What is the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)?<\/h3>\n<p>The EFTA is the intergovernmental organisation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It was set up in 1960 for the promotion of free trade and economic integration between its members.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/business\/fta-strategy-meet-trade-ministry-plans-steps-to-prevent-overstraining-of-resources-9357929\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FTA strategy meet: Trade ministry plans steps to prevent overstraining of resources<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A meeting was held to plan strategies for negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs), highlighting the need to prevent resource overuse and efficiently manage workload<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}