Delhi mulls FTA with Beijing

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NEW DELHI, Dec 6 (PTI): India is considering a free trade agreement (FTA) with China but a decision will be based on sensitivities of domestic industry, government told Rajya Sabha yesterday.
Replying to supplementaries, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jairam Ramesh said India has FTAs with five countries and six operational preferential trade agreements. Besides, 11 FTAs are under negotiations and seven other are under consideration.
"India-China FTA falls under the FTAs being considered," he said adding the decision to enter into such agreements that liberalise trade in certain identified commodities is taken after a great deal of consideration.
The country has been in negotiations with ASEAN for a FTA for the past three-and-half years and government's guiding principle has been to protest sensitive segments of the economy particularly agriculture, textiles and small-scale industries, he said.