Allaying industry concerns over free trade agreements (FTA) with other nations, Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher has asserted that the mega free trade agreement - Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is an important pact for India and industry should equip itself to avail the opportunities which would emerge from this agreement.
RCEP is an ASEAN-centred proposal for a regional free trade area, which would initially include the ten ASEAN member states and those countries which have existing FTAs with ASEAN – Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and New Zealand. India has so far entered into FTAs with Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Asean and South Asia. RCEP negotiations were launched in Phnom Penh in November 2012 and would be implementation by the end of 2015.
Commerce Secretary stated that RECP would help the country to enhance exports and to avail the opportunities, the government in its forthcoming foreign trade policy (FTP) for the period 2014-19 would focus more on areas like standards and branding of products. Rajeev Kher also asked all the departments to get involved in the process of enhancing exports as most of the departments are not focused on exports except Department of Commerce and information technology. He further added that developed countries such as the US and Europe are coming out with new rules and norms which could acts as non-trade barriers (NTBs) for exports. During April-February FY'14, value of exports increased by 4.79% to $282.78 billion as against $269.86 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year.