The India-Asean Free Trade Agreement (FTA), in effect since January 2010, has ensured greater market access for Indian industry to the Asean region, a FICCI report reveals.

The survey on the ‘Impact of India-Asean FTA on Indian Industry', conducted during August 2011, drew responses from 78 companies with turnover ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 27,000 crore.

Eighty per cent of the respondents felt that the import of products belonging to their sector has not increased post-FTA. According to them, the sectors where imports are increasing include engineering products, processed food, textiles, garments, plantation crops and auto parts.

Seventy two per cent of the respondents felt that the fear, that domestically manufacturing certain products sourced from Asean countries post-FTA, would be uneconomical, is yet to materialise.

In August 2009, India signed an FTA with Asean members on mutual understanding of lifting import tariffs on over 80 per cent of traded products between 2013 and 2016.

The FTA collectively covers a market of 1.8 billion people and proposes to gradually slash tariffs for over 4,000 product lines.

Currently, the FTA is restricted to trade in goods while negotiations for a similar agreement for services are under way.

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