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Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) make worth lone erstwhile they are implemented not erstwhile they are signed, Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran asserted connected Tuesday, informing that determination is simply a “substantial” spread betwixt what the commercialized deals committedness and what the regulatory frameworks really allow.
Mr. Nageswaran’s comments travel days aft the European Union’s Ambassador to India excessively warned that compliance issues could inactive derail the benefits of the India-EU FTA.
During his code astatine the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Annual Business Summit 2026, Mr. Nageswaran said that the 9 commercialized agreements and broad economical partnerships that India has entered into successful the past 5 years “represent the astir concentrated burst of commercialized diplomacy successful autarkic India’s history”.
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Statements of intent
He added that the frameworks with the United Kingdom, European Union, EFTA, U.S., Oman, New Zealand and Australia are not simply commercialized arrangements.
“They correspond a diversification of economical relationships that is simultaneously a connection of strategical intent that India volition grow its economical footprint crossed aggregate geographies, reducing dependence connected immoderate azygous marketplace oregon corridor,” helium said.
However, helium besides noted that specified agreements make worth lone astatine implementation, not astatine signing.
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Procedural barriers
“The spread betwixt the frameworks we person concluded and the extent of integration they would really licence if the regulatory standards and procedural barriers connected some sides were earnestly addressed remains substantial,” Mr. Nageswaran noted.
“The imperative is to adjacent that spread with the aforesaid urgency that was brought to the decision of the statement themselves,” helium added.
Speaking astatine a abstracted manufacture lawsuit past week, the EU’s Ambassador to India Hervé Delphin made akin points astir the India-EU FTA. He pointed retired that customs procedures oregon conformity requirements should service their intent and not beryllium utilized arsenic commercialized barriers.
“If administrative procedures are excessively burdensome, businesses whitethorn see that outgo of compliance outweighs the benefits of preferential tariffs, successful which lawsuit the FTA imaginable would beryllium lost,” Mr. Delphin had warned.
