Expressing optimism over India’s growth prospects, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal has said that the new free trade agreements (FTAs) finalised by India in the last 5-6 years have been designed to provide comfort to long-term investors looking to invest in global supply chains in India. He added that predictability drives investments and the FTAs provide tariff predictability. He noted that these pacts also provide investors access to $60 trillion market sitting back in India.
India has finalised trade pacts with the EU, UK, Oman, New Zealand, UAE, Australia and EFTA bloc. Under the trade pact with European Free Trade Association (EFTA), India has received a $100 billion FDI commitment over 15 years. New Zealand too has committed to invest $20 billion in India under the deal. He added this trade pacts help diversify exports basket. He said “When you diversify your export supply chain, your basket is wide enough, I think you are de-risking. So what this FTA does is to create an environment where our export supply chains can also get de-risked”.
He further said “an exporter today can access regions like Asean, and also countries like Australia and New Zealand”. The tariff arbitrage is helping diversify exports. He added “Since I am reaching the same product in ten markets, I am de-risking. So that is one way you can de-risk your exports, and that's important for exports to grow in a sustainable manner”.
