Growing Numbers and Global Economy

The recently published book as above by a former diplomat as well as a senior bureaucrat provides a commentary of the relevance of the growing numbers of free trade agreements among different countries in the global economy, with a special reference to India. The number of similar agreements across different countries in the world, around 350 or more, ensure full liberalization of trade on a bilateral basis, a pattern which is more comprehensive than the Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), which are used to achieve reciprocal  Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs).  The above are legally sanctioned in the WTO rules on trade in goods.

FTAs have a lot of significance for India. This is not only when India participates in such arrangements with one or the other trade partners but also without direct participation. An explanation for this lies in the global integration of trade and capital flows which has come up since the 1990s under globalization, making for an interdependent pattern of trade between countries. As the author points out, India was quite active in joining the FTAs during the 1990s but more or less withdrew during the next decade, followed by some recent moves to forge such FTAs with at least three countries (Australia, Mauritius and UAE) since 2021.