New Delhi:
India finalized a free trade agreement with Britain, with the aim of promoting bilateral trade and investment so far.
Other regions and countries with which India have signed such agreements include four nation European blocks EFTA, Japan, Korea and Australia.
Since 2014, the country has signed five such agreements with Mauritius, UAE, Australia, EFTA and UK.
Together, these trade treaties ensure preference relations with more than 90 countries.
What is FTA? A free trade agreement is an arrangement between two or more countries where they agree to eliminate or reduce the customs duty on the maximum number of trading goods between them, in addition to cutting non-business obstacles and reducing criteria for exporting non-trade obstacles at a significant value of imports from partner countries and reducing the criteria for exporting services and promoting bilateral investments.
The topics covered under these pacts are between 10 and 30. Worldwide, more than 350 FTs are currently applicable and most nations have signed one or more agreements.
Types of trade treaty: words like FTA, PTA or RTA are sometimes used to describe these agreements.
The WTO (World Trade Organization) uses a brief name RTA (Regional Trade Agreement) to reproduce all types of preferential economic busyness. 166-Sassinical Geneva-based organization is a global watchdog for issues related to export and imports. India is a member of 1995.
If two or more countries agree to reduce or eliminate duties on a specified number, it is called a preference trade agreement (PTA) or Early Harvest Scheme (India-Thiland).
Some agreements have also been nominated CECA (CECA (Crossing Economic Cooperation Agreement – India -Singapore) or CEPA (Cast Economic Partnership Agreement – India -Koria) or BTIA (Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement – India -Eye Union) or TEPA (Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement).
These comprehensive or new age agreements include subjects such as goods, services, investment, intellectual property rights, government procurement, trade facility, trade treatment and customs cooperation.
FTA Benefits: The partner helps in diversification and expansion of zero-duty entry export markets in the country markets.
Level-Playing Field Vij-e-Viz contestants who have already entered the FTA with partner countries.
FTA non-FTA member countries enable preference treatment in the country market.
Such pacts attract foreign investment to encourage domestic manufacturing.
They allow raw materials, intermediate products and access to capital goods for value -added manufacturing.
Help achieve long -term efficiency and consumer welfare goals.
FTA of India: India has traded with Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Australia, UAE, Mauritius, 10-nation blocks ASEAN (Union of Southeast Asian nations) and four European nations’ Block EFTA (Iceland, Lechtanstein, Norway).
In addition, India is currently negotiating business agreements with its several business partners. Negotiations are going on with America, Oman, European Union (EU), Peru and Israel.
The conversation with Canada was stopped for a similar agreement due to some political issues.
Meaning of zero duty in FTA: If zero duty is informed for a product under FTA, does it mean that it will enter India without paying any duty? No. Zero duty here means zero basic customs. However, other applied duties, which are mostly in the nature of domestic taxes, have to be paid. These may include ‘IGST’ (Integrated Goods and Services Tax) and ‘Special Kalyan Cess.
Each FTA has a list of items on which no duty is low. Such lists are known as exclusion, negative or sensitive lists. This list is different for each agreement.
These lists of many FTAs in India are some items which are selected vegetables, fruits, spices, dairy and auto.
Free trade agreements provide for a periodic review after their implementation to resolve major issues between signature parties. Currently, there is a review talks between India and Korea.
(This story is not edited by NDTV employees and auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
