The government plans to formulate SOPs for FTA negotiations
ILLUSTRATION: AJAY MOHANTY
India is considering formulating standard operating procedures (SOP) for negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) as the country works with several trading partners for such pacts, an official said.
To discuss the various aspects of these agreements, the Ministry of Commerce is organizing a two-day ‘Chintan Shivir’ on FTA strategy and SOPs for trade negotiations.
Former trade secretaries, industry experts and government officials would participate in the deliberations on May 16 and 17 in Neemrana, Rajasthan.
Various issues that would be discussed include India’s trade strategy and vision for 2047; economic assessment and modeling of free trade agreements; inclusion of new disciplines in FTAs, such as labour, environment, gender and indigenous peoples; services and digital commerce; SOPs for FTA negotiations; and industry experience in using the FTAs.
A separate session will be organized on leveraging India’s FTAs to address new forms/types of measures such as CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), supply chain disruptions, critical minerals and artificial intelligence.
“We implement a lot of FTAs and that is why we are making an SOP on how to address them. The Chintan Shivir is only about that. How we will do capacity building, how we should approach different countries and how we can conduct an economic analysis. So these are technical issues and we will have discussions on these issues,” the official said.
The talks assume significance as India negotiates trade deals with Britain, the EU (European Union), Peru and a comprehensive trade deal with Australia. The country is also in talks with the Eurasian Economic Union for a trade deal.
India’s goods and services exports reached a record high of $778.2 billion in 2023-2024, up 0.23 percent from $776.4 billion in 2022-2023. The country has signed trade agreements with Mauritius, the UAE, Australia and the European Free Trade Association since 2021.
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First print: May 16, 2024 | 12:03 pm IST