India looks to establish standardised negotiation process for trade deals

The government is seeking to revive a decade-old proposal to streamline FTA negotiations, especially in the backdrop of imbalanced deals with a couple of trade partners

Amid negotiations and renegotiations of a flurry of free trade agreements (FTAs), India is contemplating an FTA negotiating strategy. 

 

Discussions to roll out a standard operating procedure (SOP) for FTA negotiations first started more than a decade ago, after India signed pacts with its key neighbouring countries and was also in discussions with some developed nations to strike similar deals. It was felt that an SOP would act like a guidance document and help in creating an institutional memory for future negotiations. 

Though bureaucrats at the department of commerce held intense discussions over the next three-four years, the SOP did