India’s bilateral FTA with Singapore needs to be re-evaluated: GTRI
These suggestions assume significance as India and Asean have agreed to review their trade pact and are aiming to conclude the exercise by 2025.
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NEW DELHI: Think-tank GTRI on Sunday suggested that the government study the bilateral free trade agreement with Singapore and as part of the Asean bloc together while reviewing its trade pact with the 10-nation grouping.
Singapore is a member of 10-nation Asean bloc with which India has a free trade agreement in goods since 2010. Separately, India also implemented a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) with Singapore in 2005.
The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) also suggested a similar exercise with Thailand, another member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). India signed a limited free trade pact with Thailand in 2006.
These suggestions assume significance as India and Asean have agreed to review their trade pact and are aiming to conclude the exercise by 2025.
Asean members are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
Out of these, five countries - Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam - account for 92.7 per cent of India’s exports and 97.4 per cent imports from Asean.
India’s export to Asean was $19.1 billion in 2008-09 and it increased to $44 billion in 2022-23. On the other hand, imports from the 10-nation bloc rose to $87.6 billion in the last fiscal as against $26.2 billion in 2008-09.
“India has a separate FTA with Singapore with more relaxed rules of origin of products. The two FTAs may be studied together. India has a separate FTA with Thailand called early harvest scheme (EHS) with relaxed rules of origin than what India-Asean FTA offers. Substantial imports may be happening through EHS. The two FTAs may be studied together,” GTRI said in its report.
With Indonesia, the report said that in 2022-23, India imported a total of $28.8 billion worth of goods and the primary imports included coal ($14.4 billion), which consisted of both steam coal ($13.7 billion) and coking coal ($0.7 billion).
Additionally, India imported palm oil worth $5.6 billion and copper ore worth $0.9 billion from Indonesia.
