India seeks review of FTAs with ASEAN, Japan: Goyal

India seeks to extend its free trade agreement with ASEAN and Japan Piyush Goyal told the parliament today.

India has sought review of its existing free trade agreements (FTAs) with ASEAN and Japan, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that eight rounds of negotiations have been held with South Korea for upgrading the existing comprehensive FTA.

"India has sought review of its existing trade agreements with both ASEAN and Japan," he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He also said that India and the European Union have held eight stock-taking level meetings since the resumption of their negotiations in 2016 on a proposed Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).

In a separate reply, he said that India is engaging bilaterally, plurilateral and multilaterally to pursue opportunities for furthering its trade ties, including opportunities for suitable trade agreements, keeping in mind the national interest.

As per the WTO data released in April for 2018, India’s share in global exports for merchandise was 1.7 per cent and in global imports was 2.6 per cent.

For the service sector, its share in global exports was 3.5 per cent and imports were 3.2 per cent in the last year.