India’s trade with Thai to touch $7bn by FY’11
Financial Express (India) | Friday, June 22, 2007
India’s trade with Thai to touch $7bn by FY’11
AGENCIES
New Delhi, June 22: India’s trade with Thailand could touch USD 7 billion by 2010-11 propelled by a doubling in transaction under Free Trade Agreement (FTA), but there has been an alarming widening of trade deficit, industry chamber FICCI said on Friday.
The chamber said India’s total trade with Thailand is estimated to be seven billion dollars by 2010-11 from the current 2.2 billion dollars with exports to the southeast Asian country likely to touch 2.6 billion dollars by 2010-11.
FICCI said India’s export to Thailand is expected to grow at an annual rate of 20 per cent, if FTA is fully implemented in the current fiscal.
In its analysis on India-Thailand FTA, the chamber noted that the total trade of 82 items under Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) of the FTA increased by over 140 per cent to about 358.63 million dollars in 2005-06 from 149 million dollars in 2003-04.
The EHS was implemented on September 1, 2004, under which tariffs on 82 items were to be phased out by September 1, 2006 by both the sides.
Share of these 82 items in India-Thailand trade increased from 10.34 per cent in 2003-04 to 15.68 per cent in 2005-06, it said.
This, however, has been accompanied by widening trade deficit for India in these 82 items, it added.
The chamber said India’s exports of 82 EHS items to Thailand under the FTA have risen from 64.28 million dollars (2003-04) to 83.03 million dollars (2005-06) only. Whereas, its import of these items has surged to 275 million dollars from 84.64 million dollars for the same period.
