Lok Sabha Question No. 324 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-12-18
Subject: Free Trade Agreements
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: KALIKESH NARAYAN SINGH DEO

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 324 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 th  DECEMBER, 2017

## FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

324. SHRI KALIKESH N. SINGH DEO: be

Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY ( वा ͨणÏय एवं उɮयोग मंğी ) pleased to state:

- (a) the details of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed/proposed to be signed by India with  other  countries  including  those  signed  or  proposed  to  be  signed  with  Asian countries/Eurasian Economic Union along with their present status;
- (b) whether the Government has assessed the impact of these FTAs on steel, agriculture and domestic industries and if so, the details thereof along with benefits/ net inflow of foreign investment and the steps taken to protect the agricultural sector from the negative effect of FTAs;
- (c) the details of the export and import made with the countries India has entered into FTAs/Extensive  Economic  Participation  Agreement  during  the  last  three  years, region/ quantity/price-wise; and
- (d) whether the Government is in talks with many foreign countries to sign new FTA agreements and if so, the norms being followed and the action plan formulated and priority areas identified in this regard along with the progress made with regard to implementation of these agreements, country-wise?

## ANSWER

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## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY)

- (a) The details of the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)/Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements(CECAs)/Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements(CEPA) and Preferential Trade Agreements(PTAs) entered into by India is  given  in Annexure-I and Annexure-II respectively.  The  list  of  the  FTAs/PTAs currently  being  negotiated  is  given  in Annexure-III. As  regards  an  FTA  with Eurasian Economic Union, a joint statement to launch negotiations for FTA between India and the Union has been signed on 3 June, 2017.

- (b) Assessment evaluation of FTAs is a continuous process including on sectors such as steel  and  agriculture.  Before  entering  into  negotiations  with  its  trading  partners, studies are undertaken internally, as well as through the Joint Study Group (JSG) to study  the  feasibility  of  the  proposed  FTAs,  including  their  impact  on  the  domestic stakeholders  including  the  Apex  Chambers  of  Commerce  and  Industry,  Industry Associations as  well  as  the  Administrative  Ministries  and  Departments. In  order  to protect the interest of the domestic industry and agriculture sector, these agreements provide for maintaining sensitive/negative lists of items on which limited or no tariff concessions  are  granted  under  the  FTA.    The  Government  has  largely  adopted  a conservative policy on agricultural products by maintaining a large number of them in the negative list of FTAs. In addition, in case of a surge in imports and injury to the domestic industry, a country is allowed to take recourse to the measures such as antidumping and safeguards.
- (c) The Question does not arise as India has not entered into any new FTA or Preferential Trade  Agreement  (PTA)  during  the  last  three  years.  However,  India  expanded  the scope of the India-ASEAN Trade in Goods (TIG) Agreement in November, 2014 to cover  both  Services  and  Investment  with  its  date  of  implementation  being  1  July, 2015.
- (d) The  Department  of  Commerce  is  negotiating/reviewing  21  trade  agreements  with various countries and trading blocs. The details of these agreements under negotiation or review are at Annexure-III. The FTA negotiations are a continuous process and it is difficult to predict a time-line for conclusion.

## FTA's already in force

|   Sl. No. | Name of the Agreement                                                                                                                                                        | Date of Signing of the Agreement                                            | Date of Implementation of the Agreement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | India - Sri Lanka FTA                                                                                                                                                        | 28th December. 1998                                                         | 1 st March, 2000                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|         2 | Agreement on SAFTA (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Afghanistan)                                                                     | 4th January, 2004                                                           | 1st January, 2006 (Tariff concessions implemented from 1 st July, 2006)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|         3 | India Nepal Treaty of Trade                                                                                                                                                  | 27 th October 2009                                                          | The Treaty has been extended for a further period of 7 years and is currently in force till 26 th October 2023.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
|         4 | India - Bhutan Agreement on Trade Commerce and Transit                                                                                                                       | 17 th January, 1972                                                         | Renewed periodically, with mutually agreed modifications. Agreement dated 29 th July 2006 was valid for 10 years. With mutual consent, the validity was extended for a period of one year or the period till the proposed new Agreement comes into force. The renewed Agreement has been signed on 12.11.2016 and came into force with effect from 29 July 2017. |
|         5 | India - Thailand FTA - Early Harvest Scheme (EHS)                                                                                                                            | 9 th October, 2003.                                                         | 1 st September, 2004                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
|         6 | India - Singapore CECA                                                                                                                                                       | 29th June, 2005                                                             | 1st August, 2005                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|         7 | India - ASEAN- CECA - Trade in Goods, Services and Investment Agreement (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) | 13 th August, 2009 for goods and November, 2014 for Services and Investment | Goods  1st January 2010 in respect of India and Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand.  1 st June 2010 in respect of India and Vietnam.  1 st September 2010 in respect of India and Myanmar.  1 st October 2010 in respect of India and Indonesia.  1 st November 2010 in respect of India and Brunei.  24 January 2011 in respect of India and Laos.             |

## Annexure-I

| Sl. No.   | Name of the Agreement    | Date of Signing of the Agreement   | Date of Implementation of the Agreement                                                                                                              |
|-----------|--------------------------|------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|           |                          |                                    |  1 st June 2011 in respect of India and the Philippines.  1 st August, 2011 in respect of India and Cambodia. Services and Investment 1 July, 2015 |
| 8         | India - South Korea CEPA | 7 th August 2009                   | 1 st January, 2010                                                                                                                                   |
| 9         | India - Japan CEPA       | 16 th February, 2011               | 1 st August, 2011                                                                                                                                    |
| 10        | India - Malaysia CECA    | 18 th February, 2011               | 1 st July, 2011                                                                                                                                      |

## PTAs already in force:

|   Sl. No. | Name of the Agreement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              | Date of Signing of the Agreement            | Date of Implementation of the Agreement                                                                                    |
|-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) (Bangladesh, China, India, Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Sri Lanka)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  | July, 1975 (revised on 2 nd November, 2005) | 1st Nov, 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, | 13 th April, 1988                           | 19 th April, 1989                                                                                                          |
|         3 | SAARC Preferential Trading Agreement (SAPTA) (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  | 11 April, 1993                              | 7 December, 1995                                                                                                           |
|         4 | India - Afghanistan                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                | 6th March, 2003                             | 13 th May, 2003                                                                                                            |
|         5 | India - MERCOSUR                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   | 25th January, 2004                          | 1st June, 2009                                                                                                             |
|         6 | India - Chile                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | 8 th March, 2006                            | 11 th September, 2007. The agreement has been expanded on 6 th September, 2016 and came into force w.e.f. 16 th May, 2017. |

## Annexure-II

## FTAs/PTAs under Negotiation/Review:

|   Sl. No. | Name of the Agreement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       | Status                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | India - EU BTIA (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia ,Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) | Negotiations launched on 28 th June 2007 in the areas of Goods, Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Facilitation and Customs Cooperation, Competition, IPR & GIs. Etc. Sixteen rounds of negotiations and a number of inter-sessional and Chief Negotiator level meetings have been held till date. A Ministerial review meeting between Commerce & Industry Minister and EU's Trade Commissioner was held on 15 th April, 2013 at Brussels. After a period of lull, several attempts were made in 2016 to revive the negotiations through stocktaking meetings at the Chief Negotiators level. The 5 th meeting took place in New Delhi on 14-15 November, 2017. |
|         2 | India - Sri Lanka Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreements (ETCA)                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | The negotiations on the text of the proposed Agreement are being carried out with Sri Lanka. Five rounds of negotiations have been held so far. The 5 th round of negotiations of the ETCA was held on 16-18 August, 2017 in Colombo.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|         3 | India - Thailand CECA                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       | Early Harvest Scheme on 82 items implemented. So far 30 rounds of India-Thailand Trade Negotiation committee (ITTNC) meetings have been held. The 30 th round was held on 13-14 July, 2016 in New Delhi.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
|         4 | India - Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA)                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Ten rounds of negotiations on India-Mauritius CECPA have been held between the two sides so far, the last round was held on 23-24 October, 2006. Although the CECPA negotiations had been formally put on hold, they were revived in March, 2016 during the visit of the Hon'ble Prime Minister to Mauritius. After resumption, the first meeting of the India-Mauritius was held on 12-13 September, 2016 in Mauritius. The 2 nd meeting of the India- Mauritius was held on 27-28 September, 2017 at New Delhi to finalise the JSG Report.                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|         5 | India EFTA TEPA (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland)                                                                                                                                                                                                                            | The India-EFTA TEPA (Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement) was launched in January 2008 (then known as BTIA). The first round was held in New Delhi during 6-8 October, 2008. The Chapters covered are Trade in Goods, Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Measures (SPS), Technical Barriers to Trade(TBT), Trade Facilitation and Customs Cooperation,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |

## Annexure-III

|   Sl. No. | Name of the Agreement                                                                                                            | Status                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
|-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         6 | India - New Zealand FTA/CECA                                                                                                     | Ten Rounds of negotiation of CECA have been held so far. The 10 th Round was held in New Delhi on 17-18 February, 2015.                                                                                                                                     |
|         7 | India - Israel FTA                                                                                                               | Eight rounds of negotiations on India-Israel FTA have been held so far. The Eighth round was held in Israel from 24-26 November, 2013.                                                                                                                      |
|         8 | India - Singapore CECA                                                                                                           | Second review of India-Singapore CECA was launched in May, 2010. A stock taking meeting was held on 8 th November, 2016 in New Delhi                                                                                                                        |
|         9 | India - SACU PTA (South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia)                                                        | Five rounds of negotiations have been held so far, the 5 th round of negotiations was held in October 2010 in New Delhi.                                                                                                                                    |
|        10 | India - Mercosur PTA expansion (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay)                                                         | The existing India-MERCOSUR PTA is being expanded. The 3 rd Meeting of Joint Administrative Committee was held in Brasilia on 29 th September, 2016. Both sides exchanged their initial offers on 14.09.2017.                                               |
|        11 | BIMSTEC CECA (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal)                                                 | 20 meetings of the Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC) have taken place. The 20 th Meeting of BIMSTEC Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) was held during 07-09, September 2015 in Khon Kaen, Thailand.                                                         |
|        12 | India - Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Framework Agreement (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and United Arab Emirates) | Two rounds of negotiations have been held so far between 2006 and 2008. The second round was held in September 9-10, 2008. Since then GCC has deferred its negotiations and is currently reviewing its negotiations with all countries and economic groups. |
|        13 | India - Canada FTA                                                                                                               | Nine rounds of negotiation on India-Canada CEPA have been held so far. The Ninth round was held in March, 2015.                                                                                                                                             |
|        14 | India - Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement                                                                   | Commencement of negotiation on Indonesia - India CECA was announced on 25 th January 2011. Negotiations have been kept on hold due to RCEP negotiations.                                                                                                    |

| Sl. No.   | Name of the Agreement                                                                                                                                   | Status                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|           | (CECA)                                                                                                                                                  |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| 15        | India - Australia                                                                                                                                       | Nine rounds of negotiations have been held so far. The ninth round of negotiations was held on 21-23 September 2015, in New Delhi, India.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| 16.       | India-Malaysia CECA (1 st Review)                                                                                                                       | The 1 st review meeting of the India-Malaysia Joint Committee meeting was held on 8 th December, 2014.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| 17        | Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement among ASEAN + 6 FTA Partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand) | Based on the Declaration of the Leaders during the ASEAN Summit in November, 2012, negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership between the 10 ASEAN member states and its 6 FTA partners commenced in May, 2013. The 5 th RCEP Ministerial was held in Manila on 10 th September, 2017.. The 20 th round of RCEP TNC and related meetings were held from 17-28 October, 2017 in Incheon, Korea. The 1 st RCEP Summit was held in Manila on 14 November, 2017. The negotiations cover a number of areas like trade in goods, services, investment, intellectual property, economic & technical cooperation, competition and legal &institutional issues. |
| 18        | India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) (1 st Review) | The 1 st review meeting of the India-ASEAN trade in Goods Agreement was held on 6 April, 2016 in Kuala Lumpur.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| 19        | India-Korea CEPA review                                                                                                                                 | Three rounds of negotiations for upgrading India-Korea CEPA have been held so far with 3 rd round held on 21-22 September, 2017 in Seoul.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| 20        | India-Iran PTA                                                                                                                                          | So far, two meetings have taken place. The last meeting was held at New Delhi on 01-02 September, 2016. The dates of next meeting of India-Iran PTA are not yet finalised.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| 21        | India-Peru Trade Agreement                                                                                                                              | The first round of negotiations was held on 8-11 August, 2017 in New Delhi.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |

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