India witnessing pickup in trade flows from recently signed FTAs: FICCI President

New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) India is witnessing "positive traction" and a pickup in trade flows from the free trade agreements (FTAs) signed recently, FICCI President Anant Goenka said on Tuesday.

He also said the proposed trade pacts with the US and the European Union (EU) are among the key pacts that Indian industry is keenly awaiting.

"FTAs that we have signed, we are seeing positive traction on that front. Good trade pickup after the recent FTAs that have been signed," Goenka told PTI.


India has recently implemented trade pacts with Mauritius, the UAE, Australia and four-nation bloc EFTA. It has also signed a similar agreement with the UK, but it has not yet been implemented.

He added that the chamber will work on leveraging these deals to push the country's exports.

On the proposed pacts with the US and EU, the president said these are two important trade deals largely "because of the scale of the two geographies and the amount of trade we do (with them). It will have a much larger impact on our industry".

There is a large complementarity between India and these two countries, he said, adding that "we have the people, and they have technology...so you are not directly competing with them in many areas. Rather, there are a lot of value adds that we have to offer. They have some to offer us".

India and the US are negotiating a bilateral trade agreement (BTA). So far, six rounds of talks have been held. The two are looking to conclude the first tranche of the agreement soon.