Review of the year 2010

8/7/2019 Review of the year 2010

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/review-of-the-year-2010 1/4

“Review of the year 2010” India on Course toAchieve Export Target of US $ 200 Billion

EXPORTS / FTP

India’s exports have registered a growth of 26.8% during November 2010, at US $ 18.9

billion. During the period April-November 2010, exports have reached a level of US $ 140.3

billion at a growth of 26.7% while the imports were US $ 222 billion with a growth of 24% and a

trade deficit of US $ 81 billion. India’s imports in November 2010 were US $ 27.8 billion, up by

11.2%. During April-November 2010, the following sectors have done well viz., engineering,

gems & jewellery, petroleum and its products, leather & leather products, carpet, plastics &

linoleum, cotton yarn, chemicals etc.

An export target of US $ 200 billion has been set for the year 2010-11. With the present growthtrend, we are on course to achieve the export target for 2010-11. There has been minor

improvement in the GDP Growth rate of US, one of our major export destinations. IMF has also

projected a growth rate of 3.3% in GDP in 2010 and 2.9% in 2011 for US in comparison to the

negative growth in 2009.

In the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14, it has been stated that India’s merchandise exports is

expected to reach US $ 200 billion in 2010-11. In order to meet these objectives, the

Government planned to follow a mix of policy measures including fiscal incentives, institutional

changes, procedural rationalization, and enhanced market access across the world and

diversification of export markets. Improvement in infrastructure related to exports; bringing downtransaction costs and providing full refund of all indirect taxes and levies became the three

pillars, which would support to achieve the target.

Government has put emphasis on market diversification as our traditional exports have been hit

badly due to their concentration in US and EU Regions. Since the announcement of FTP, 2009-

14, focus had been to diversify our markets more into developing countries of Africa, Latin

America and some parts of Oceania. A recent preliminary study conducted by Federation of

Indian Exporters (FIEO) revealed that the schemes, particularly the Focus Market Scheme (FMS)

and Market Linked Focus Product Scheme (MLFPS) have played a key role to diversify

the India’s export base. Out of the 27 new countries added under FMS in August 2009, exportsto 15 countries registered impressive growth despite the global slowdown.

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES

The main objectives of the SEZ Act are: (a) generation of additional economic activity; (b)

promotion of exports of goods and services; (c) promotion of investment from domestic and

foreign sources; (d) creation of employment opportunities; and (e) development of infrastructure

facilities. The overwhelming response to the SEZ scheme is evident from the flow of investment

and creation of additional employment in the country. The SEZ scheme has generated

tremendous response amongst the investors, both in India and abroad. In addition to earning of

foreign exchange and development of infrastructure, SEZs have also created a significant localarea impact in terms of direct as well as indirect employment, emergence of new activities,



changes in consumption pattern and social life, human development facilities such as education,

healthcare etc.

So far, formal approvals have been granted for setting up of 580 SEZs out of which 367 have

been notified. Out of the total employment provided to 6,20,824 persons in SEZs as a whole

4,86,120 persons is incremental employment generated. The total physical exports from SEZs as

on 30th September, 2010 i.e. in the first two quarters of the current financial year, has been to

the tune of Rs. 1,39,841 crore approximately registering a growth of 55.8% over the exports of

corresponding period of the previous financial year. The total investment in SEZs till 30th

September, 2010 is Rs.1,76,148 crore approximately, including Rs. 1,61,743 crore in the newly

notified zones. 100% FDI is allowed in SEZs through automatic route. A total of 122 SEZs are

making exports. Out of this 69 are IT/ITES, 16 Multi product and 37 other sector specific SEZs.

The total number of units in these SEZs is 3,139.

RTAs/FTAs/PTAs

India has always stood for an open, equitable, predictable, non-discriminatory and rule based

international trading system. RTAs, in India’s point of view, should be ‘building blocks’ towards

the overall objective of trade liberalisation and should complement the multilateral trading

system. In the past, India had adopted a very cautious and guarded approach towards RTAs

and was initially engaged in only a few bilateral/regional initiatives, mainly through Preferential

Trading Agreement (PTA) like the Bangkok Agreement (signed in 1975) to exchange tariff

concessions in the ESCAP region, the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP – signed in

1988) to exchange tariff concessions among G-77 member countries, and the SAARC PTA

(SAPTA – signed in 1993) to liberalise trade in South Asia. However, these engagements

achieved limited results in terms of increasing trade volumes with the membcountries. Recognizing that RTAs would continue to feature permanently in world trade, India

got engaged with its trading partners/blocs with the intention of expanding its export market since

early part of this decade and began concluding, in principle agreements to move, in some cases,

towards Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements (CECA) which covers FTA in

goods, services, investment and identified areas of economic cooperation.

FTAs/PTAs under Negotiation:

S. No. Name of the Agreement Status

1 India - Japan CEPA Negotiations completed. The proposed agreement covers the areas

of Goods, Services, Investment, Intellectual Property

Rights, SPS/TBT.

2 India - EU BTIA Negotiations launched on 28th June 2007 in the areas of Goods,

Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Measures,

Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Facilitation and Customs

Cooperation, Competition, IPR & GIs. Etc Eleven rounds of

negotiations held till date

3 India - ASEAN CECA –

Services and Investment

Agreement

Negotiations on Trade in Services and Investment are under way. 9

meetings of Negotiating Groups have been held so

far. Negotiations targeted to conclude by March 2011.

4 India – Sri Lanka CEPA FTA in goods implemented from March 2000. Negotiations onInvestments and Services underway.



5 India - Thailand CECA Early Harvest Scheme on 82 items implemented. Meeting of the

Trade Negotiating Committee are now being resumed. Next

meeting scheduled in Dec 2010.

6 India - Malaysia CECA Negotiations concluded. CECA is expected to be signed by January

2011 and implemented with effect from 1st July, 2011.

7 India - Mauritius CECPA Negotiations are at a standstill since the tenth round held on

October, 2006.

8 India EFTA BTIA 6th Round of negotiations were held during Nov 11-12, 2010. Next

round expected to take place in Feb. 2011

9 India - New Zealand FTA

/ CECA

Three rounds of bilateral negotiations held so far.

10 India –Israel FTA First Round of negotiations took place in May 26, 2010.

11 India - Singapore CECA Second review launched in May, 2010. Target to be completed by

Mid 2011.

12 India - SACU PTA 4th

round of negotiations held in Oct 2009 in New Delhi.13 Indian Mercosur PTA The PTA is being expanded by widening product coverage and

deepening preferences. Second meeting of Joint Administrative

Committee on India-Mercosur PTA took place in June 2010.

14 India – Chile PTA The PTA is being expanded by widening product coverage and

deepening preferences. Second meeting for expansion of the

India-Chile PTA took place in August 2010.

15 BIMSTEC CECA 18 meetings of the Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC) have taken

place. Texts of the agreements on trade in goods, customs

cooperation and trade facilitation have been finalized. Negotiations

on the agreements on service and investments are continuing.

16 India - GCC Framework

Agreement

The 2nd round of Negotiations held in September, 2008.

17 India – Canada FTA Inaugural round of negotiation took place in Nov 2010

FTAS in Pipeline:

S. No. Engagement Status

1 India - Australia JSG Report submitted in May 2010.

2 India - Indonesia JSG Report submitted in Sept 2009. Note sent to

PMO for consideration of the TERC to initiate the

negotiations3 India – Turkey FTA The third meeting of the JSG was held in Delhi in

the 2nd half of October 2010. During this meeting

discussions were held on Chapters on Goods,

Services, and Investments.

4 India - Egypt FTA Revised proposal for setting up of a JSG to examine

the feasibility of an FTA under preparation.

5 India - Russia 4th Joint Task Force (JTF) meeting held in Moscow,

onMay 16-17, 2010 . Fifth meeting of the JTF to be

held in Oct 2010

6 Trilateral FTA between India-MERCOSUR – SACU

Trade Ministers of India and the member countriesof MERCOSUR and SACU met



in Geneva on 30thNovember 2009 to explore the

possibility of a Trilateral Preferential Trade

Agreement.

7 India - China JTF report finalized in October 2007. Internal

decision not to proceed with the FTA

8 Indian Ocean Rim-Association

for Regional Cooperation

India opposed participation in the proposed PTA on

the grounds that India has separate trade agreements

with most IOR-ARC members.

Review of the year 2010

Documents

Transcript of Review of the year 2010