Gains from FTAs

BS OPINION

 India also signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Thailand, which envisages mutual elimination of tariff barriers over the next few years.

 These steps reflect a justifiable effort to increase trade with countries that have put trade at the centre of their development strategies and who happen to be close neighbours.

 As the objective of a truly open and transparent global trading order recedes into the distance, countries will increasingly turn to regional agreements that provide market expanding opportunities, however limited, and are far more tractable from an administrative viewpoint.

 India