India's Trade Deal Overdrive

Government is working overtime to wrap up pending trade deals. The trick lies in avoiding the pitfalls of its earlier deals.

- Joe C. Mathew

"YEH DIL MAANGE MORE." Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said at a press briefing after India signed Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) with Australia on April 2. It was India's second 'early harvest' trade deal in quick succession; an interim India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed two months prior to this. The Australia ECTA is being seen as the first step towards a bigger CEPA.

Goyal was responding to a question, 'what next?', as India has been in a hurry to sign trade agreements with several nations and trade blocs. Free trade agreements (FTAs) and deals like CEPA target mutual reduction or elimination of barriers to trade and investment, mainly import tariffs. "We are in very active dialogue with U.K. and Canada and have agreed with both that we can have an interim agreement faster, followed by a more comprehensive agreement. We launched negotiations (for FTA) with E.U. last year. We are also in dialogue with Israel and have received interest from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for bringing all six GCC nations into a comprehensive economic partnership with us," said Goyal. "A lot of work for our officials and a lot of sleepless nights for all of us to take the historic $400 billion-plus exports (goods) in FY22 to even greater levels," he added. The deal with UAE is already operational. The one with Australia is expected to be implemented soon.