Govt reviewing impact of existing FTAs: Minister

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SME TImes News Bureau | 14 May, 2013
In order to measure the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) on the India's trade, the government is reviewing some of the existing FTAs with other nations and will try to address issues in those pacts accordingly, reports media.

"Myself and Mr Anand Sharma (Union Commerce Minister) are currently reviewing it. We should be coming out at the earliest (the outcome of the review). I am not very sure of the time frame. But we will be examining the existing FTAs," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D Purandeswari told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in Hyderabad on Monday.

"We need to look at how far the FTAs have gone and if there are any challenges or hurdles that we face and how to address them. So, that is the kind of review that is happening now," she added.

Purandeswari was chief guest at a seminar on 'Export Growth In Andhra Pradesh-potential, opportunities and challenges' organised by Andhra Pradesh Trade Promotion Corporation Limited and Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).

Exports are expected to grow by 10-15 percent in the current fiscal, FIEO director general and CEO Ajay Sahai said.

"Last year, our exports stood at USD 300 billion. This year we expect 10 to 15 percent growth," Sahai said.

Replying to a query, he said the situation in Europe, which contributes nearly 18 percent of Indian exports, is still not promising.

"The global situation is still not conducive. Europe, which is accounting for nearly 18 percent of our exports, is showing minor or slight negative growth," he said.

Sahai said the loss of export growth from European region may be offset with the growth from emerging markets.

Earlier industry body FIEO had said that the government needs to revisit its export strategy as some recent FTAs are encouraging imports rather than exports. President, FIEO, M Rafeeque Ahmed had said that the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) or Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) or Free Trade Agreements (FTA) has facilitated more imports than exports from India.