Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said he expects at least two more free trade agreements to be signed up in 2023.
Negotiations are scheduled with the UK, European Union and Canada, Goyal said at an event here, adding that his ministry does not have the bandwidth to tend to requests by smaller trading partners like New Zealand with which the bilateral trade stands at USD 350 million.
“India today works from a position of strength, we negotiate with confidence,” Goyal said, adding that the country will sign at least two such free trade agreements.
Speaking at the event to mark the operationalisation of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement signed in April this year, Goyal said January itself is filled with meetings between Indian Commerce Ministry officials and their counterparts abroad. After handing over certificates of origin to the first among the Indian goods being sent to Australia after the agreement, Goyal said the FTA will benefit a slew of sectors, including textiles, gems and jewellery and also information technology, which gets aided by the dropping of double taxation. Goyal said he expects Indian IT companies’ billing to Australia alone growing to USD 1 billion in the next 5-7 years from USD 200 million at present.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which India walked out of in 2019, would have become a free trade agreement with China in effect, Goyal said, adding that Indian industry was “petrified” with the earlier UPA government’s move to start negotiations on the same.
He called the walkout an economically prudent and wise decision.
As of now, with the agreement with Australia, India has separately struck trade agreements with 13 of the 15 countries in the RCEP, while only New Zealand and China remain. He said on a conservative basis, the ministry expects the bilateral trade between India and Australia to increase to $31 billion in five years with the free trade agreement in place.
The agreement is a win-win document that has the complementarities as its fundamental building block, Goyal said, adding that India will get access to cheaper raw materials like coal from Australia while the finished Indian goods will have a market there.