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India’s exports to Korea in 2009-10 stood at $ 3.42 billion while imports were $ 8.57 billion, a year before the CEPA became operational. By 2024-25 India’s exports to Korea touched just at $ 5.8 billion while imports surged to $ 21.06 billion.
Similar is the case with Japan. Before the agreement with the island country came into force, India’s exports to Japan stood at $ 5.09 billion in 2010-11 and imports were $ 8.63 billion.
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By 2024-25 India’s exports to Japan were still stagnating at $ 6.42 billion while imports had gone up to $ 18.91 billion. The trade agreement with the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations came into force in January 2010. In 2009-10 India’s exports to Asean stood at $ 18.11 billion and imports were $ 25.79 billion. In 2024-25 India’s exports to Asean were $ 38.96 billion while imports grew to $ 84.15 billion.
“The Asean trade agreement is questionable in terms of fairness and equity,” Goyal said. Both India and Asean are actively engaged in the review of their trade pact with a deadline of 2015-end. So far 11 rounds of talks have been held on the review. With Korea also the talks are going on for the review of the FTA to make it more balanced. With Japan the talks are in initial stages and progress is slow.
Goyal criticised the previous Congress governments for not properly negotiating free trade agreements with Asean, Japan and Korea. He also criticised it for selecting wrong partners who are in direct competition to India in the international market and whose products entering the Indian market at lower duties are hurting domestic manufacturers.
He said the present government on the other hand is negotiating with the European Union, Australia, Oman and Qatar which pose no threat to manufacturers in the domestic market and offer huge opportunities for exports with their high per capita income.
He also put the FTAs completed with the UK, UAE, Mauritius, EFTA bloc and Australia in this category.