FTAS with key nations to boost exports: FIEO

Inking free trade agreements (FTAS) with India’s major trading partners such as the US, the UK, European Union, Australia,

New Zealand, Canada, Israel, among others, will boost exports and help in attracting more foreign investments into the country, the Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO) said on Monday.

“One of the reasons for the success of Vietnam, in attracting investment and relocating units, is its effective FTAS with the rest of the world. It is extremely encouraging that the government is moving simultaneously with many trade partners in this direction. We are confident that the industry will play a pro-active role in such negotiations and will give required elbow room to our negotiators,” FIEO’S new President A Sakthivel said in a virtual briefing.

India is likely to kick-start formal negotiations for FTAS with the UK and EU by the end of 2021, soon after the preparatory work is completed. India is also focusing on resuming trade talks with Canada and Australia. Negotiations with new countries such as Israel are also being considered.

While the Centre’s $400 billion target for exports for FY21 looks “little ambitious”, Sakthivel said in order to achieve this, it would require aggressive marketing strategy and venture into new markets. According to official data, merchandise exports in the first two months of the fiscal year was $62.9 billion, up 12 per cent as compared to Aprilmay 2019.

FIEO has urged the government to look into increasing market access initiative funds and formulate a scheme for marketing with a minimum corpus of ~1,000 crore annually, to take exports to $1 trillion in the next five years.

Since traditional export sectors have not been losing their share in the global market amid stiff competition from other nations, there is also a need to push growth in sunrise sectors.

India is likely to kick-start formal negotiations for FTAS with the UK and EU by the end of 2021