{"id":162472,"date":"2022-01-17T20:48:58","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T15:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=162472"},"modified":"2022-01-17T20:48:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T15:18:58","slug":"early-harvest-agreements-explained-why-india-is-trying-to-seal-a-free-trade-agreement-with-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/early-harvest-agreements-explained-why-india-is-trying-to-seal-a-free-trade-agreement-with-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Harvest agreements: Explained: Why India is trying to seal a free trade agreement with UK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>News:\u00a0<\/strong>India and UK have formally launched <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/free-trade-agreements-fta-challenges-opportunities-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Free Trade Agreement (FTA)<\/a> <\/strong>negotiations, with the aim of concluding an <a class=\"text-primary\" href=\"#\" data-toggle=\"popover\" data-content=\" An early harvest deal is a precursor to an FTA, in which the trading partners focusing on a restricted list of goods and services.\"><strong>early harvest trade agreement<\/strong> <\/a>over the next few months.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Read here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-fta-ambitions-in-perspective\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">India\u2019s FTA ambitions in perspective<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><strong>What will be the benefit of FTA with the UK?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>According to India&#8217;s commerce minister, this interim agreement aims to achieve up to 65% of coverage for goods and up to 40% coverage for services. Till the agreement has been finalized, it is expected that the coverage for goods goes up to 90 plus percentage.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Read here: <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/things-to-watch-for-as-india-uk-launch-fta-talks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Things to watch for as India, UK launch FTA talks<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>India is also negotiating a similar early harvest agreement with Australia.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What are Early Harvest agreements?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Early harvest agreements initiate bilateral trade by focusing on a restricted list of goods and services. They act as a precursor for a comprehensive FTA.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What are the challenges associated with the Early Harvest agreements?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>-They can <strong>result in delaying a comprehensive FTA<\/strong>. <span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">For instance, with <\/span><strong style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Thailand<\/strong><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">, India has signed a <\/span><strong style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">restricted trade agreement in 2004<\/strong><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\"> but has been unable to convert this into an FTA. Similar case with <\/span><strong style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Sri Lanka<\/strong><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">, where India was not able to conclude an agreement on services and investments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>-Early harvest agreements can be challenged in WTO, as only comprehensive FTA\u2019s are exempt from WTO rules. <strong>Article XXIV.8(b) of GATT<\/strong> exempts only those deals which cover substantially all the trade between two countries.<\/p>\n<p>-Expert notes that early harvest deals <strong>reduce the incentive from one side towards a full FTA<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>-But in the case of India, early harvest deals also serve the function of keeping trading partners interested, as India had become known for long-drawn negotiations for FTA\u2019s.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Also read: <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-early-harvest-trade-deals-could-run-into-trouble\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">India\u2019s \u2018early harvest\u2019 trade deals could run into trouble<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><strong>What are the other trade pacts that are under negotiation?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>India <strong>currently has 10 FTAs and six PTAs<\/strong> (preferential trade agreements). It is negotiating 16 new and expanding seven existing agreements, including with trading partners such as Canada, the EU, the US, alongside Australia and the UK.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Read here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/list-of-indias-ftas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">List of India\u2019s FTAs<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>A majority\u201d of FTAs under negotiations are \u201ccomprehensive\u201d and cover goods, services, investment, IPR, Non-Tariff Measures, regulatory procedures and trade facilitation etc. India is also simultaneously carrying out a review of the existing FTAs with South Korea, Japan and <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/all-you-need-to-know-about-india-asean\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ASEAN<\/a>\u00a0on the ground of India\u2019s rising trade deficit with these trading partners.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong>This post is based on the article &#8220;<strong>Explained: Why India is trying to seal a free trade agreement with UK&#8221;\u00a0<\/strong>published in\u00a0<strong>Indian Express <\/strong>on\u00a0<strong>17th January 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News:\u00a0India and UK have formally launched Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, with the aim of concluding an early harvest trade agreement over the next few months. Read here:\u00a0India\u2019s FTA ambitions in perspective What will be the benefit of FTA with the UK? According to India&#8217;s commerce minister, this interim agreement aims to achieve up to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/early-harvest-agreements-explained-why-india-is-trying-to-seal-a-free-trade-agreement-with-uk\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Early Harvest agreements: Explained: Why India is trying to seal a free trade agreement with UK<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5480,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-162472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}