6-Apr-2022: FTAs

So far, India has signed 13 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with its trading partners, including the 3 agreements, namely India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA), India-UAE Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (IndAus ECTA) signed during the last five years. The list of FTAs signed by India is as under:

(*) Signed, but yet to be implemented.

In addition, India has signed the following 6 limited coverage Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs):

The economic impact assessment of FTAs undertaken both in terms of data analysis and stakeholder consultations from time to time, has revealed that there has been growth in both exports and imports with FTA partners.

28-Jan-2022: Joint Outcome Statement: Round One of Negotiations for A Free Trade Agreement Between The Republic of India and The United Kingdom

The Republic of India and the United Kingdom concluded the first round of talks for an India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Both sides acknowledge the importance of ensuring this first round – held virtually over 2 weeks - could proceed despite the challenges presented by the COVID pandemic.

During this round, technical experts from both sides came together for discussions in 32 separate sessions covering 26 policy areas including: Trade in Goods, Trade in Services including Financial Services & Telecommunications, Investment, Intellectual Property, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Competition, Gender, Government Procurement, SMEs, Sustainability, Transparency, Trade and Development, Geographical Indicators and Digital.

The negotiations were productive and reflected our shared ambition to secure a comprehensive deal to boost trade between the 5th and 6th largest economies in the world. The positive discussions in round one have laid the groundwork for the UK and India to make positive and efficient progress.

The second round of negotiations is due to take place on 7-18 March 2022. Both teams maintain a shared ambition to conclude negotiations by the end of 2022 – as part of both sides’ efforts to secure a comprehensive agreement, Chief Negotiators will continue to consider the benefits of an Interim Agreement.

13-Jan-2022: India and UK Launch Free Trade Agreement Negotiations

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal launched the Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the United Kingdom along with Rt. Hon. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, UK Secretary of State for International Trade in New Delhi today. The FTA is expected to facilitate the target of doubling bilateral trade between India and United Kingdom by 2030, set by the Prime Ministers of both the nations, Shri Narendra Modi and Mr. Boris Johnson in May 2021.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal said that both India and UK are vibrant democracies, with a partnership built on our shared history and rich culture. The diverse Indian diaspora in UK, who act as a “Living Bridge”, adds further dynamism to the relations between the two countries, he added.

The Minister said that the FTA with UK is expected to provide certainty, predictability and transparency and will create a more liberal, facilitative and competitive services regime.

Shri Goyal said that the FTA negotiations with the UK is expected to increase our exports in Leather, Textile, Jewellery and processed Agri products. He added that India is also expected to register a quantum jump in the export of Marine Products through the recognition of 56 marine units of India.

The Minister said that the Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) on Pharma could provide additional market access. There is also great potential for increasing exports in service sectors like IT/ITES, Nursing, education, healthcare, including AYUSH and audio-visual services. India would also be seeking special arrangements for movement of its people, he added.

The Minister assured that subsequent to the unveiling of FTA, the two nations would proactively and regularly engage with each other, for deliberating on the scope and coverage of the trade deal. Observing that UK was a major trade partner of India with substantial bilateral volume of trade in goods and services, Shri Goyal said that the cooperation extended across areas like tourism, tech, startups, education, climate change, etc. and that the two nations were looking forward to a mutually beneficial trade deal with balanced concessions and market access package in a wide range of sectors.

Calling for the enhancement of sectoral cooperation by addressing market access issues and removing trade restrictions, Shri Goyal said that it would help generate direct and indirect employment in both nations.

The Minister said that the India-UK FTA will also contribute in integrating value chains and help augment our mutual efforts to strengthen the resilience of supply chains. Reminding that the leaders of both nations had envisioned launching the FTA Negotiations in early 2022, Shri Goyal expressed his happiness at the successful conclusion of discussions in a timely manner to announce the launch of our FTA negotiations today.

The Minister also informed that it was also agreed to explore during the FTA negotiations, the possibility of an Interim Agreement to provide quick gains for benefitting businesses in both nations. Our endeavour is to deliver a comprehensive, balanced, fair and equitable FTA, to benefit our small, medium and micro-enterprises in both nations, he said.

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14-Mar-2022: Reduction in import of coking and non-coking coal

Demand of coal is higher than the current level of domestic supply of coal in the country. The gap between demand and domestic supply of coal cannot be bridged completely as there is insufficient availability and reserve of prime coking coal in the country. Further, coal imported by power plants designed on imported coal and high grade coal required for blending purposes is also imported in the country as this cannot be fully substituted by domestic coal as the country has limited reserve of high grade coal. As per the current import policy, coal is kept under Open General License (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal from the source of their choice as per their contractual prices on payment of applicable duty. Government of India does not interfere in this matter.

The total actual demand of coal during 2020-21 was 906.13 Million Tones (MT). Out of which total coal import was 215.25 MT which was 23.75% of the total requirement. The details of indigenous production, import and requirement of coking and non-coking coal (actual demand) during the year 2020-21 is as under:-

Coking coal mission has been launched for increase in the coking coal production from present 45 MT to 140 MT by 2029-30. This will help in reducing the import of coking coal as it can be blended with high grade imported prime coking coal for steel manufacturing.

Latest technology e.g. Continuous Miner for underground mines, surface miner for opencast mines, latest HEMMs etc. are already in vogue for production of coal in the country.

9-Nov-2021: Substantial Reduction in Import of Non Coking Coal during this Fiscal

India has been importing coal to bridge the gap between the requirement of coal and the domestic production in the country. The dependence on imports for Coking Coal mainly used in the steel sector has been predominantly due to very limited domestic availability. Thus, import under this category has been largely non substitutable. Even though the import of Coking Coal is non-substitutable, consequent to the sustained effort of the government, in line with mission ‘AtmaNirbhar, the imports of various grades of Non Coking Coal have reduced substantially during the current financial year. The latter includes high GCV thermal coal used for industrial purpose and low GCV that goes for power generation.

In the first five months of the Financial Year 2021-22 i.e. up to August 2021(Firm import data is available up to August,21), the import of all varieties of Non Coking Coal has reduced to 70.85 MT from 84.44 MT during the corresponding months of the financial year 2019-20 representing a decline of about 16.09%. The financial year 2020- 21 is not being taken for comparison purpose due to industrial production getting severely affected during this year because of Covid-19 related restrictions where the decline observed is 21%.

The reduction of imports of low calorific value (low GCV) of Non Coking Coal which is mainly used in power sector is even more significant. During FY 2021-22 upto Aug 21, the imports of such grades of coal have decreased by about 47% to 15.24 MT from 28.69 MT during the same period of FY 2019-20. Due to substantial reduction of import of Non Coking Coal in the current year, the total import of coal has also reduced to 94.15 MT in the period from April to August 2021 compared to 107.01 MT during the corresponding period of FY 2019-20, a decrease of about 12%. This has resulted in considerable financial savings in the current year as coal prices are going up sharply in the international market.

The total domestic dispatch of coal has gone up by 9.44% to 317.69 MT in the current FY upto August, 21 as compared to 290.28 MT in the same period of FY 2019-20. This increase could be achieved despite serious challenges arising out of unprecedented rain in several mine areas this year. The government is continuing all efforts to further enhance the coal production and dispatch. Coal India Limited and other Coal producing Units are all set to ramp up the domestic production.