New Delhi, Nov 24 (KNN) The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector is getting larger importance in the new free trade agreements (FTAs), a senior official said on Thursday, reported FE. 

Rajesh Agarwal, additional secretary, department of commerce said that the government is trying to address the challenges the MSME sector faces through these deals.

“Every FTA India has entered into mentions MSME sector, even if only in passing. Now we are making a complete chapter on MSMEs. As a country, we will have to start putting in more and more weight around the work MSMEs can do and how they can be enabled to leverage the FTAs,” he said. 

FTAs can bring advantages to MSMEs as by evening out tariffs it enables them to become part of global value chains. 

In the FTAs being negotiated, there is a lot of talk about addressing the information asymmetries MSMEs face in trade through sharing of best practices and other trade enabling knowledge.

In the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework of Prosperity (IPEF), a provision has been made where the US will take in 500 entrepreneurs and workers from member countries for six months to two years for on-the-job training and capacity building.

Another handicap MSMEs face is procedures and paperwork involved that might require physical presence of exporters or their representatives. “All FTAs are talking about digitisation of processes, e-documentation, e-billing… and logistics involved in exports,” Agarwal said.

He said recently a pilot was done to send a consignment to Florida through Singapore through e-bills. “We are increasingly moving towards that and FTAs make provision around it,” he added.

(KNN Bureau)