{"id":237188,"date":"2023-04-10T20:49:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T15:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=237188"},"modified":"2023-04-13T13:54:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T08:24:05","slug":"on-indias-new-stance-on-trade-agreements-it-takes-india-back-to-the-pre-reforms-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/on-indias-new-stance-on-trade-agreements-it-takes-india-back-to-the-pre-reforms-era\/","title":{"rendered":"On India\u2019s new stance on trade agreements: It takes India back to the pre-reforms era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source-<\/strong> The post is based on the article \u201cPrabhash Ranjan on India\u2019s new stance on trade agreements: It takes India back to the pre-reforms era\u201d<\/strong> published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d<\/strong> on 10th April 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 3 – Economy<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to international trade and investment issues<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The article deals with India new approach to FTAs<\/p>\n

What is the record of India in signing FTAs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

India signed several FTAs in the 2000s with countries like Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, and Japan. These FTAs include binding rules on both, international trade liberalisation, and the protection of foreign investment from arbitrary state conduct. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the last few years, India has signed FTAs with Mauritius and the UAE and an interim one with Australia. India is currently negotiating FTAs with the UK, European Union, Canada, and Israel.<\/p>\n

How is India ‘s FTA policy different from its earlier approach?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

India is decoupling international trade law from international investment law<\/strong>. The FTAs with Mauritius, UAE, and Australia contain detailed international rules on trade<\/strong>. But, rules on foreign investment protection <\/strong>are missing.<\/p>\n

There is absence of investment protection<\/strong> in these FTAs. It is more striking because India has unilaterally terminated its bilateral investment treaty (BIT)<\/strong> that protects foreign investment with Mauritius and Australia.<\/p>\n

In FTA 2.0, India is ostensibly following an approach that can be described as the \u201cdomestication of IIL<\/strong>\u201d. It is a process where countries develop domestic rules in parallel to international rules<\/strong> to protect foreign investment.<\/p>\n

They give primacy to their domestic laws in safeguarding foreign investment<\/strong> by doing two things-<\/p>\n

First, domestically legislating investment protection standards<\/strong> that are typically part of International Investment Law. Second, providing a dispute resolution mechanism<\/strong> at the local level instead of treaty arbitration<\/strong>. South Africa is a good example of this kind of domestication.<\/p>\n

India has also unilaterally terminated <\/strong>most of its investment treaties. It has signed a few BITs in the last decade.<\/p>\n

Unlike South Africa, India hasn\u2019t legislated an exclusive law for the protection of foreign investment.<\/strong> But the message is quite clear. International trade commitments <\/strong>will be protected under international law<\/strong> and\u00a0 foreign investment will be guarded as per municipal laws.<\/strong><\/p>\n

India\u2019s approach can also be explained as \u201cde-legalisation of international economic law<\/strong>\u201d. It prefers domestic adjudication for trade and investment matters<\/strong> at the cost of international law.<\/p>\n

What can be inferred from India’s new approach to FTAs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The domestication or de-legalisation of IIL<\/strong> takes India back to the pre-1991 era when India was not in favour of international legalisation of economic relations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, India desperately seeks foreign investment but is suspicious about IIL<\/strong>. The decoupling of international trade law from IIL is not in sync with the approaches of India\u2019s current and potential FTA partner countries.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source- The post is based on the article \u201cPrabhash Ranjan on India\u2019s new stance on trade agreements: It takes India back to the pre-reforms era\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 10th April 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 – Economy Relevance– Issues related to international trade and investment issues News– The article deals with India new… Continue reading On India\u2019s new stance on trade agreements: It takes India back to the pre-reforms era<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"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":[9223,216,10500],"class_list":["post-237188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-free-trade-agreements","tag-gs-paper-3","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\/237188","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\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}