India is party to

free trade agreement A free trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating state (polity), states. There are two types of trade agreements: Bilateralism, bilateral and Multilateralism, m ...

s (FTAs) and other trade agreements with many countries and

trade bloc A trade bloc is a type of intergovernmental agreement, often part of a regional intergovernmental organization, where barriers to trade (tariffs and others) are reduced or eliminated among the participating states. Trade blocs can be stand-alo ...

s, and is negotiating with many others. As of 2022, India has preferential access, economic cooperation and FTA with more than 50 individual countries. The negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

were completed in 88 days, which was the shortest time span for any free trade agreement signed by India.

Overview

There are different types of trade agreements that enable preferential market access between India and signatory countries or trade blocs - preferential trade agreements (PTA), free trade agreements (FTA), and Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements (CECA) and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA). A preferential trade agreement (PTA) involves two or more partners agreeing to reduce tariffs on an agreed number of tariff lines (products). The list of products on which the partners agree to reduce duty is called the positive list. In general, PTAs do not cover substantially all trade. The India

Mercosur The Southern Common Market (commonly known by abbreviation ''Mercosur'' in Spanish and ''Mercosul'' in Portuguese) is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full me ...

Preferential Trade Agreement is an example of a PTA. A free trade agreement (FTA) also involves reducing or eliminating tariffs on items traded between the partner countries; however each maintains individual tariff structure for non-members. The key difference between an FTA and a PTA is that PTAs have a positive list of products on which duty is to be reduced, while an FTA uses a negative list on which duty is not reduced or eliminated. Thus, compared to a PTA, FTAs are generally more ambitious in coverage of tariff lines on which duty is to be reduced. The India Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement is an example of an FTA. Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) are agreements which consist of an integrated package on goods, services and investment, as well as

trade facilitation Trade facilitation looks at how procedures and Trade restriction, controls governing the movement of goods International trade, across national borders can be improved to reduce associated Cost, cost burdens and maximise efficiency while safegua ...

and rule-making in areas such as

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

government procurement Government procurement or public procurement is the purchase of goods, works (construction) or services by the state, such as by a government agency or a state-owned enterprise. In 2019, public procurement accounted for approximately 12% of GDP ...

technical standards A technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, ...

and sanitary and phytosanitary issues. The India Korea CEPA is one such example and it covers a broad range of other areas such trade facilitation, customs cooperation, investment, competition, intellectual property rights etc. CECA/CEPAs are more comprehensive and ambitious than FTAs in terms of coverage of areas and the type of commitments. While a traditional FTA focuses mainly on goods, a CECA/CEPA provides holistic coverage of many areas like services, investment, competition, government procurement, disputes etc. Further, a CECA/CEPA looks deeper into the regulatory aspects of trade than an FTA. Due to this, it encompasses

mutual recognition Mutual recognition occurs when two or more countries or other institutions recognize one another's decisions or policies, for example in the field of conformity assessment, professional qualifications or in relation to criminal matters. A mutual ...

agreements (MRAs) that cover the regulatory regimes of the partners. An MRA recognises different regulatory regimes of partners on the presumption that they achieve the same end objectives.

Bilateral agreements

Negotiations concluded

* (

India–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement The India–United Kingdom free trade agreement is a free trade agreement which began negotiations in January 2022. When completed it became the second comprehensive free trade agreement that India had concluded with a European country; it beca ...

)

Under negotiation

* (CEPA) * (CEPA) * (FTA) * (FTA) * (CEPA) * (FTA) * (CEPA)

Proposed

* (FTA) * (FTA) * (FTA)

Multilateral agreements

Under negotiation

BIMSTEC The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organization of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic pro ...

(FTA) *

Eurasian Economic Union The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU or EEU)EAEU is the acronym used on thorganisation's website However, many media outlets use the acronym EEU. is an economic union of five post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The EAEU has an integrated single ...

(FTA) *

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(FTA) *

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ), is a Regional integration, regional, intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Ba ...

(FTA) * IBSA (FTA) *

Southern African Customs Union The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union among five countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. Its headquarters are in the Namibian capital, Windhoek. It was established in 1910. H ...

(South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland) (PTA)

Abandoned proposals

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP ) is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific countries of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, S ...

(RCEP)

References

{{free trade agreements Foreign relations of India Free trade agreements of India

Overview

Bilateral agreements

Negotiations concluded

Under negotiation

Proposed

Multilateral agreements

Under negotiation

Abandoned proposals

See also

References