In a bid to fast-track a possible free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) that could give India greater access to the vast market in Russia and its neighbourhood, New Delhi has exchanged the first draft of the joint study group (JSG) report on the feasibility of such a pact with the five-nation bloc.

“This is the fastest we have ever moved while considering a free trade pact with a trading partner. The bloc itself is just over a year old. We started exploring the possibility of a JSG in July last year, just six months after the bloc was formed, we have already exchanged the first draft reports,” a government official told BusinessLine .

India’s enthusiasm comes from the fact that the EAEU, which came into force on January 2, 2015, integrating Russia’s market with that of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, offers a large, mostly unexplored, market with a joint population size of 180 million and a GDP of an estimated $4 trillion.

“India is interested in an extensive FTA with the region covering most goods, services as well as investments, and has mentioned it in the draft submitted to the EAEU. We have received their draft as well and are currently going through it,” the official said.

Pharmaceuticals, textiles, agriculture items and energy are some of the areas where India stands to gain by getting into a trade pact with the EAEU. If the political strain between Russia and the EU and the resulting sanctions against EU food products continue, India could gain even more, the official added.

A common JSG report would be culled out of the two drafts, once the two sides go through each other’s reports. “The final JSG report will spell out the ambition of the trade pact — whether it will be a wide-ranging FTA or a preferential trading agreement involving specified goods,” the official said.

Working on ‘no-go’ areas The Commerce Ministry is simultaneously working on the “no-go’’ areas of the proposed pact. “We will soon be ready with the areas that we do not want to include in pact and the areas where we would like to move with caution so that there is no confusion about it,” the official said.

With the Indian industry not too happy with the FTAs signed with trading partners such as South Korea, Japan and the ASEAN, the Ministry wants to tread carefully in the new ones that are to be negotiated.

India’s exports to the EAEU countries in 2014-15 stood at about $2.5 billion, with $2.1 billion shipped to Russia. It is just a small part of the imports made by the region, with Moscow alone importing goods worth $282 billion in 2014.

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