Mahendra's Institute

India's Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with major partners such as Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and the ASEAN bloc have not contributed to an increase in the country's trade deficit, initial findings of a Government study on the impact of FTAs has concluded.

“Though preferential imports have been increasing from the period 2009-2010 to 2013-14, they are still not significant ranging from 3.4 per cent of total imports under the FTA with Malaysia to 22.4 per cent of total imports under the India-Japan FTA,” according to an official release by the Commerce Ministry.

The FTAs have also not resulted in any increase in consumer goods imports and only an “insignificant”' rise in automotives imports, the Commerce Ministry study said.

Imports have been low under the preferential tariff route offered under the FTA because of tough Rules Of Origin (ROO) norms, which call for high value addition for imported products to qualify for FTA benefits, an official said.

The Commerce Ministry, however, doesn't have data on exports through the preferential route as it is awaiting data from partner countries. 

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