At a seminar organised by the Odisha chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday, several speakers from the Government and the industry spoke about the regime of Free Trade Agreements which presents a range of opportunities to the exporters of the country and others looking to join the growing list of exporters.
The speakers included several officers from the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Joint Secretary Asit Tripathy, Director Amrit Raj, Director Sanjeet Singh, Director Vimal Srivastava and Additional Economic Advisor Sangeeta Saxena who spoke on “India’s Free Trade Agreements (FTA): Challenges and Opportunities”.
The speakers highlighted that since the Doha round of the WTO negotiations has not shown the desired progress, India has been pursuing the FTA route to expand its export market base. More than 20 FTAs have already been signed and they have given access to many markets in countries in South East Asia and nearer home on terms that speakers described as WTO plus.
It was also highlighted that talks are on with many other trade partners including European Union, Australia and New Zealand. In fact, the US and the China are the major exceptions and reason is different for each of them.
The speakers emphasised that FTAs are now being pursued as a part of the country’s foreign policy. Such agreements help boost the bilateral trade and the overall relationship too. CII International Trade Policy head Pranav Kumar provided the industry perspective. CII Odisha State Council Chairman MK Gupta moderated the seminar.