Pvt sector must leverage FTA benefits; track record on utilising deal gains is not good: Commerce Secretary
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Union Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal on Monday urged the corporate sector to build leverage on the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) India has been finalising in the last couple of years. Agrawal said the track record on utilisation and building leverages around the FTAs is not very good.
Agrawal said India's FTAs, which are at various stages of implementation, are looking out at big markets, which are complementary in nature and the government's objective is to provide a predictable trade, tariff, and regulatory environment to our industries.
"FTAs are just frameworks unless we are actually able to leverage the potential that the pathway creates. Industry will have to walk the talk; consumers will have to walk the talk. Every stakeholder, including the government will have to walk the talk," Agrawal said at CII Annual Business Summit in New Delhi.
"We will also need to do something by creating the right infrastructure and good ecosystem. We will have to bring industrial policy which complements our trade policy. The two cannot move in different directions. A lot of work has to be done by all stakeholders. But in this case our track record has not been very good," Agrawal said.
"Utilisation of FTA is the one thing on which we are being questioned again and again. "We are being asked what is the benefits that the FTAs are bringing to us," Agrawal said.
Recent FTAs are different from the past
Agrawal pointed towards the recent FTAs are different from the past. "We are looking at economies that are complementary in nature, have big markets and can bring investments in India. Secondly, the FTAs have gone beyond tariffs. Some of the areas which are core to our livelihood, jobs and not ready for competition, we are trying to protect them. So, there is a very nuanced approach. But at the same time, we are expanding beyond tariffs," he said.
"At the end of the FTAs we want to provide a very predictable trade tariff and regulatory environment to our industry. That will not only enable us to grow trade but also create the right foundation for sustainable domestic and foreign investments," he added.