The Hindu Business Line : ‘EU, India FTA may be concluded by year-end’

Kolkata, Sept. 5 The Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union is expected to be concluded by the end of this year, said Mr G.K. Pillai, Union Commerce Secretary, here on Friday.

A central ministry team will visit Brussels on Saturday to initiate another round of negotiation in this regard, he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Engineering Export Promotion Council.

While the WTO agreement was unsuccessful, senior officials from the Centre would also visit Geneva next week to discuss issues pertaining to abolition of trade distorting subsidies by developed countries, among others, the Commerce Secretary said.

The primary reason behind the WTO agreement being unsuccessful was the differences with developed countries on issues of special safeguard mechanisms for poor farmers, he pointed out. “They wanted us to cite special demonstrable harm to farmers to grant the safeguard, which literally meant suicides being committed by all our farmers,” he said.

Pact with Korea, Japan

The FTA between India and Korea was also in an advanced stage of settlement; it was expected to be concluded by this month, he hoped. Success in the FTA with Japan would, however, depend on whether it eliminated a number of technical trade barriers and opened its market for Indian exports, he added.

Later, while addressing an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Mr Pillai said India must look to produce more technology-rich products to compete in the global export market.

While China exports 22 per cent “high-tech” products, India exports only 5 per cent, he pointed out. Although India topped in technology in leather products, its share in global export of leather goods was a mere 7 per cent, he added.

Value chain

Indian companies also needed to move up the value chain by acquiring global distribution and retail firms to reap benefits of price appreciation as high as 75 per cent through such chains, he said.

The Centre was also considering formulation of innovative non-tariff technical barriers to facilitate Indian manufacturers, he said, while stating that it was not possible for the Centre to compete with the Chinese Government in matching the export incentive schemes provided by them.

Mr Pillai said Kolkata should focus on development of ports built by the private sector. While private ports in the country have been growing at 35-40 per cent, public sector ports were lagging behind, he pointed out.

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