India proposes preferential trade pact with Mexico to deal with tariffs

‘Technical level talks are on...The only fast way forward is to try to get a preferential trade agreement (PTA) because an FTA will take lot of time’

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

India has proposed a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Mexico to help domestic exporters deal with the steep tariffs announced by the North American country, a top government official said on Monday.

Mexico has decided to impose steep import tariffs - ranging from about 5 per cent to as high as 50 per cent on a wide range of goods (about 1,463 tariff lines) from countries that do not have free trade agreements with Mexico, including India, China, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said that India has engaged with the country on the issue.

“Technical level talks are on... The only fast way forward is to try to get a preferential trade agreement (PTA) because an FTA (free trade agreement) will take a lot of time. So we are trying to see what can be a good way forward,” he told reporters here.

While in an FTA two trading partners either significantly reduce or eliminate import duties on maximum number of goods traded between them, in a PTA, duties are cut or removed on a limited number of products.