NEW DELHI: India has accelerated discussions to finalize free trade agreements with several nations, as New Delhi seeks to offset the impact of steep US import tariffs and widen export destinations amid uncertainties in global trade. <\/p>\n
India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Oman on Thursday, which allows India to export most of its goods without paying tariffs, covering 98 percent of the total value of India\u2019s exports to the Gulf nation. <\/p>\n
The deal comes less than five months after a multibillion-dollar trade agreement with the UK, which cut tariffs on goods from cars to alcohol, and as Indian trade negotiators are in advanced talks with New Zealand, the EU and Chile for similar partnerships. <\/p>\n
They are part of India\u2019s \u201congoing efforts to expand its trade network and liberalize its trade,\u201d said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe renewed efforts to sign bilateral FTAs are partly an after-effect of New Delhi realizing the importance of diversifying trade partners, especially after India\u2019s biggest export market, the US, levied tariff rates of up to 50 percent on India.\u201d <\/p>\n
Indian exporters have been hit hard by the hefty tariffs that went into effect in August. <\/p>\n
Months of negotiations with Washington have not clarified when a trade deal to bring down the tariffs would be signed, while the levies have weighed on sectors such as textiles, auto components, metals and labor-intensive manufacturing. <\/p>\n
The FTAs with other nations will \u201chelp partially in mitigating the effects of US tariffs,\u201d Manur said. <\/p>\n
In particular, Oman can \u201cact as a gateway to other Gulf countries and even parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa,\u201d and the free trade deal will most likely benefit \u201clabor-intensive sectors in India,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The chances of concluding a deal with Washington \u201cwill prove to be difficult,\u201d said Arun Kumar, a retired economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the US, the chances of coming to (an agreement) are a bit difficult, because they want to get our agriculture market open, which we cannot do. They want us to reduce trade with Russia. That\u2019s also difficult for India to do,\u201d he told Arab News. <\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions over India\u2019s historic ties with Moscow and its imports of Russian oil, which Washington says help fund Moscow\u2019s ongoing war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump is constantly creating new problems, like with H-1B visa and so on now. So some difficulty or the other is expected. That\u2019s why India is trying to build relationships with other nations,\u201d Kumar said, referring to increased vetting and delays under the Trump administration for foreign workers, who include a large number of Indian nationals. <\/p>\n
\u201cSubstituting for the US market is going to be tough. So certainly, I think India should do what it can do in terms of promoting trade with other countries.\u201d <\/p>\n
India has free trade agreements with more than 10 countries, including comprehensive economic partnership agreements with South Korea, Japan, and the UAE.<\/p>\n
It is in talks with the EU to conclude an FTA, amid new negotiations launched this year for trade agreements, including with New Zealand and Chile. <\/p>\n
India\u2019s approach to trade partnerships has been \u201ctotally transformed,\u201d Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a press briefing following the signing of the CEPA with Oman, which Indian officials aim to enter into force in three months. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow we don\u2019t do FTAs with other developing nations; our focus is on the developed world, with whom we don\u2019t compete,\u201d he said. \u201cWe complement and therefore open up huge opportunities for our industry, for our manufactured goods, for our services.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI: India has accelerated discussions to finalize free trade agreements with several nations, as New Delhi seeks to offset the impact of steep US import tariffs and widen export destinations amid uncertainties in global trade. India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Oman on Thursday, which allows India to export most of its …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91358,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91342\/revisions\/91358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}