For more FTAs, need for greater trade openness

THE GOOD NEWS regarding India’s trade deal with the US—which is the ninth since theruling dispensation came to office in 2014—comes when adverse headwinds negatively impact global trade,which in turn has knock-on effects on the Indian economy.

- N CHANDRA MOHAN

An interesting factoid is that more than half of India’s exports of goods and a third of imports will flow through these nine trade deals. More such bilateral and regional agreements are on the anvil, with India diversifying its trading relationships as the world fractures broadly into USand Sino-centric blocs. To facilitate more such deals, government policy must go all in to promote greater trade openness and outward orientation to navigate the uncertainties in global trade.