Chief negotiator Darpan Jain briefs Bengaluru’s IT firms, GCCs, MSMEs on FTA opportunities

Darpan Jain, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and chief negotiator for free trade agreements (FTAs) with the US and Europe, held closed-door meetings and interactions with large domestic tech firms, Global Capability Centers (GCCs) and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

In all, India has concluded nine FTAs with 38 countries in the past five years, and the objective of these special sessions was to explain and educate tech service firms, GCC players and small and medium enterprises on the provisions of these FTAs, so that the business and trade community can understand the full export and import scope of these new bilateral treaties in simple language.

“The real benefit of the agreement will be delivered only if our business entrepreneurs and exporters understand how these support export and import opportunities and how these trade pacts help boost the country’s global trade and exports,” said Mr. Jain, an IAS officer from the Karnataka cadre who briefly served as the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru in April 2018.

According to him, services are the most important pillar in all these FTAs, and they provide an opportunity to enhance India’s exports to these FTA countries. He was in Bengaluru because the city is a hub of IT, IT-enabled services, business services and global capability centres, and it was important to inform them about the benefits of FTAs and how they can use them.

This was the first round of such interactions, which he and his colleague Anupama started. With this, the Department of Commerce was setting up a mechanism through which it could continue its dialogue with industry.

The Department of Commerce has also launched a Trade Connect platform, a one-stop platform for all exporters’ needs, whether it is accessing information, seeking facilitation or answering queries. In addition, the Department has introduced an intelligence and analysis portal where exporters can run queries on products, trends, opportunities and the competitive landscape.

“In India, exports are at the maximum eight-digit level. So, at the eight-digit level, we are giving all this information so that our exporters can access it, understand it and then use it,” Mr. Jain said.

On textiles, for example, he said the market opportunity was $359 billion and is now under a zero-duty structure. Gems and jewellery, a $442 billion industry, is also under zero tariffs. There are also engineering exports.

Through these FTAs, almost $3 trillion in market opportunities are opening. “So, these are imports of our partner countries on which our exporters used to pay tariffs. Now they will not pay tariffs,” he added.