With European Union and the UK clinching a post-Brexit trade pact, India really should now aggressively pursue no cost trade agreements (FTAs) separately with each the regions, according to authorities.
Although it is premature to assess the gains for India from the agreement amongst European Union (EU) and the UK, Indian goods would not get a lot advantage from this pact, they stated.
However, India can discover possibilities in service sectors like IT, architecture, investigation and improvement and engineering in each the markets as the EU-UK pact does not cover services, they added.
“There is not much gain for Indian goods, but we can gain in services sector in both the UK and EU markets. We will gain more in the UK market as we are English speaking country,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai stated.
He stated there are no certain customs duty advantages for domestic goods from this agreement.
“Now we should push the FTA negotiations with both the EU and the UK. Indian competitors like Vietnam have greater duty advantage in sectors like apparel and marine goods,” Sahai stated.
Sharing equivalent views, Biswajit Dhar, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, stated India had a lot of contentious difficulties though negotiating FTA with the EU. However, soon after Brexit, the UK could have diverse stand on these difficulties and now “India should pursue FTA talks again with both the regions”.
He added that there is a possibility of carrying out a favourable no cost trade pact with the UK.
FIEO President Sharad Kumar Saraf stated that India really should now “aggressively” move on beginning negotiations for FTA with each the EU and UK.
“We have requested the government to sign an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) regarding a deadline to conclude FTA talks with Britain during the visit of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson next month in India,” Saraf stated.
Rakesh Mohan Joshi, professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), stated that soon after the trade deal with the EU and the UK, India will get a far better chance to cater to the demands of each the markets.
“But India needs to plan accordingly,” he added.
Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel stated India-UK FTA would assist in removing the customs duty disadvantages faced by domestic players in Britain.
Britain clinched a historic deal with the European Union on Thursday as each sides managed to thrash out a post-Brexit no cost trade agreement just days prior to the December 31 deadline.
The bilateral trade amongst India and the UK dipped to USD 15.5 billion in 2019-20 from USD 16.9 billion in 2018-19.