The rush for free trade agreements (FTAs) is real. A decade and a half after economist Jagdish Bhagwati infamously dubbed preferential pacts as termites in the global trade system, the world is seeing an uptake in bilateral pacts, taking the momentum away from multilateralism. India, too, is aligned with the prevailing trend. After a long … Read more
Around this time last year, India and the UK looked ready to sign a free trade deal: the deadline set by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was Diwali. That did not materialise. On October 26, a couple of days after the festival of lights, then UK trade minister Greg Hands said in British Parliament … Read more
With a number of countries approaching India for negotiating bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) to boost economic ties, the commerce ministry is looking at ways to increase its bandwidth for undertaking these time and human resource consuming talks, a senior official said. The commerce ministry officials at present are negotiating several FTAs with countries including … Read more
Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, at the CII AGM in New Delhi. India has a strong foreign exchange reserve and the country is in a comfortable position to meet all the requirements even in any worst-case scenario in the next five-six years, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on May 24. India’s … Read more
India is not seeking to reverse the benefits of globalization, but is asking that it be made more transparent, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Monday. “It’s not to say that we have to reverse the benefits of globalization. It is more to say, make globalization more transparent,” Sitharaman told a prominent American think-tank Peterson … Read more
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said businesses need to be aware of the regulatory barriers in climate change, labour protection, gender inclusivity and e-commerce, areas which were not part of India’s earlier free trade agreements (FTAs). It also said in a report that anticipating the impact of the upcoming FTAs on the supply chains can help businesses review … Read more
Even as many developed nations are witnessing inflation, agencies such as International Monetary Fund have branded India as a Bright Spot, says the Union Minister Even as many developed nations are witnessing inflation, agencies such as International Monetary Fund have branded India as a Bright Spot, says the Union Minister Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on … Read more
Whisky, cars, vaccines, basmati rice, wool, and tea pre-mix top a list of 240 odd products the Indian industry has identified for import duty cuts in the United Kingdom under a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries. The industry has come up with the list of products for greater market access in … Read more
Indian companies must stop promoting protectionism and complaining about imports via Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), and instead become globally competitive and seize the opportunity to penetrate global supply chains at a time when companies are looking to invest in alternative locations, Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog said. “Problem is that Indian manufacturing companies spread protectionism…you … Read more
NEW DELHI: Transactions under the goods and services tax show that the economy is on a continued path of recovery even after a resurgence of Covid-19 forcing reimposition of movement restrictions and lockdowns in major parts of the country, finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey has said. That and improved compliance aided GST collections to touch … Read more