Trends.

(From Business Today (India))

Byline: Ashish Gupta, Kushan Mitra, Sahad P.V., Roshni Jayakar, Dipayan Baishya, Venkatesha Babu, Vidya Viswanathan, Narendra Nathan, Brian Carvalho

LEADER

FTA Fallout

Free Trade Agreements, conventional wisdom says, are good. So why is India Inc. unhappy at the rash of FTAs India has signed?

By Ashish Gupta

There's a lot to be said for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). They allow countries to break out of the stifling rut of having to negotiate trade details on a commodity-by-commodity basis and provide for duty-free entry of all goods except those on a negative list (this is usually short). The consequent benefits are significant: a larger inflow of foreign capital, integration of trade- and economic-policies, maybe the creation of a formidable economic and diplomatic bloc. FTAs usually render local industries globally competitive: after all, in the absence of tariff barriers, industries have nothing, other than their own efficiency, to protect them from the onslaught of imports. So, why are Indian companies opposed to FTAs?