Even as the government signals a renewed push on the trade front by targeting early harvest bilateral deals, India’s existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), most of which were inked in the mid-2000s and are under an official review process, have seen imports grow much faster than exports over the last decade.
Between FY11 and FY21, exports to nine countries and two trading blocs, with which India already has trade agreements, grew 36 per cent to top $62 billion while imports from these countries grew 44 per cent to nearly $75 billion, doubling the trade deficit to $11.8 billion in FY21 from $5.8 billion in FY11.
The gap between growth in exports and imports was even larger in FY19, the last fiscal that was not impacted by the pandemic. Between FY11 and FY19, India’s exports to these countries grew by 57 per cent to $72.4 billion while imports grew 80 per cent to $93.2…
