TPP casts shadow on India's foreign trade worth over $200 bn
Updated: Oct 27, 2015 12:19:52pm
New Delhi, Oct 27 (KNN) India might have to bear the brunt of 13-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal as its trade with the TPP countries stood at about USD 220 billion that is about 29 per cent of the country’s total trade (exports plus imports) in the financial year 2014-15, said industry body ASSOCHAM.
“The TPP accord will dismantle trade barriers, reduce transaction costs, promote ease of doing business and possibly benefit consumers with lower prices and more choice in member countries,” it stated in an address to the Union Finance and Commerce Minister, Arun Jaitley and Nirmala Sitharaman.
The chamber observed that India’s total exports and imports were of the order USD 79 bn (26 per cent of country’s total exports) and USD 140 bn (31 per cent of country’s total imports) respectively. The country’s exports to the TPP block rose by four per cent in terms of value (in dollars) even when the country’s overall exports fell by over one per cent in 2014-15.
Besides, India had received foreign direct investment (FDI) worth USD 9.5 bn from TPP countries (Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the USA) which was close to 40 per cent of the total FDI inflows into India worth about USD 25 bn in the last fiscal.
Challenges posed by TPP pact must be treated as an opportunity for domestic industry in rising to the challenge of higher standards in products, services and framework of rules, it said.
“Such mega trade agreements and other negotiations like Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will erode existing preferences for Indian products in established traditional markets like the US and the EU (European Union) thereby benefitting the partners to these deals,” highlighted the chamber.
It pointed out that the TPP block is likely to develop a rules’ architecture that might place greater burden of compliance on India’s manufacturing and services standards for access to the markets of the participating countries.
TPP and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) should evolve into complementary agreements to serve the entire Asia-Pacific Region in a much better way, more so as the two initiatives have overlapping membership, it suggested. (KNN Bureau)
“The TPP accord will dismantle trade barriers, reduce transaction costs, promote ease of doing business and possibly benefit consumers with lower prices and more choice in member countries,” it stated in an address to the Union Finance and Commerce Minister, Arun Jaitley and Nirmala Sitharaman.
The chamber observed that India’s total exports and imports were of the order USD 79 bn (26 per cent of country’s total exports) and USD 140 bn (31 per cent of country’s total imports) respectively. The country’s exports to the TPP block rose by four per cent in terms of value (in dollars) even when the country’s overall exports fell by over one per cent in 2014-15.
Besides, India had received foreign direct investment (FDI) worth USD 9.5 bn from TPP countries (Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the USA) which was close to 40 per cent of the total FDI inflows into India worth about USD 25 bn in the last fiscal.
Challenges posed by TPP pact must be treated as an opportunity for domestic industry in rising to the challenge of higher standards in products, services and framework of rules, it said.
“Such mega trade agreements and other negotiations like Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will erode existing preferences for Indian products in established traditional markets like the US and the EU (European Union) thereby benefitting the partners to these deals,” highlighted the chamber.
It pointed out that the TPP block is likely to develop a rules’ architecture that might place greater burden of compliance on India’s manufacturing and services standards for access to the markets of the participating countries.
TPP and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) should evolve into complementary agreements to serve the entire Asia-Pacific Region in a much better way, more so as the two initiatives have overlapping membership, it suggested. (KNN Bureau)
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