“Today, India needs reciprocal agreements that need to be developed bilaterally, but unfortunately all of these bilateral agreements may not be consistent,” Palit said. Vietnam signed a fairly comprehensive bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the United States in 2000. It came into force in 2001. The BTA was part of the post-war “trade normalization” process between the two countries and was to be seen as the powerful precursor to a watertight U.S. free trade agreement. In June 2007, Hanoi and Washington signed a framework agreement on trade and investment, another step towards a possible free trade agreement. And in December 2008, the two governments began negotiating a bilateral investment agreement (ILO), which is another. The People`s Republic of China has bilateral trade agreements with the blocs, countries and their two specific administrative regions:[13] “Indian exporters are concerned about losing their markets in the EU for key products to Vietnam, where their competitor will soon have the advantage of duty-free access because of its free trade agreement with the bloc. India can nullify this advantage by concluding its own free trade agreement, but it must act with caution, as an early agreement can cause the sector to lose more than it gains. The free trade pact signed between Vietnam, the emerging leader of Southeast Asia, and Belgium`s 27-member customs bloc, the European Union (EU), does not bode well for India, exporters and trade experts told CNBC-TV18. An interactive list of bilateral and multilateral free trade instruments can be find on the TREND Analytics website.

[59] So where is India, where trade policy makers are discussing plans to woo companies that are withdrawing from China. India`s exports of footwear, clothing, seafood and furniture to the European Union will be hardest hit when the 27-person bloc begins to remove its tariffs on Vietnam under the soon-to-enter EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Full multilateral agreements (not listed below) see: List of multilateral free trade agreements. List of agreements being negotiated. Agreements that have so far been discussed only in the absence of formal action by the parties concerned are not mentioned. ON 13 August 2009, ASEAN and India signed the ASEAN-India Trade Agreement (TIG) in Bangkok after six years of negotiations. The signing of the ASEAN-India trade agreement paves the way for the creation of one of the world`s largest free trade agreements – a market of nearly 1.8 billion people with a total GDP of $2.8 trillion. Under the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement, more than 90% of the products traded between the two dynamic regions, including so-called “special” products, such as palm oil (raw and refined), coffee, black tea and pepper, are filled with tariffs. Tariffs for more than 4,000 product lines will not be abolished until 2016 at the earliest.

The Tig aSEAN-India agreement came into force on 1 January 2010. “As soon as there is a free trade agreement between the EU and Vietnam, European producers will be able to invest in Vietnam and continue to export to other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, including a market such as China, because China and Vietnam will be part of a major free trade agreement with the next RCEP [Regional Economic Partnership]” amitendu Palit, senior Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies. , National University of Singapore. There are still large gaps between the two areas in areas such as intellectual property, public procurement, investment protection, labour, the environment and market access for sensitive products, which they say need to be addressed.