The Union Ministry of Commerce and FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) are jointly organizing a seminar to address Business opportunities and challenges faced by Indian pharmaceutical industry and trade/export promotion organizations with FTA (Free Trade Agreement) countries. The event is scheduled to be held on  January 10 in Hyderabad.

The seminar’s main objective is to address the challenges faced by Indian exporters and traders with the FTA countries. Asit Tripathy, joint secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and other officials are expected to interact with the participants at the seminar.

Over the past few years India has been engaging in FTAs and Comprehensive Economic Cooperation/Partnership Agreements (CECA/CEPA) with various countries in a bid to improve its exports to the global markets.

As India has signed some very critical FTAs in the recent past - with ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) & Korea in 2009 and with Japan & Malaysia in 2011, many of these agreements have either been concluded or under negotiation with these economies. There is a constant consultations process going on with these countries to streamline and resolve various issues pertaining to mutual trade relations.

Though, over the past few years FTAs have given a lot of leverage and scope to build global business opportunities for the exporting firms in India, in the recent times not many Indian pharma traders are willing to do trade with the FTA countries as there are persisting problems relating to unacceptable norms and regulations which have not yet been resolved with those countries.

“In spite of our good intentions of FTAs there are problems, therefore it has become imminent to discuss the challenges faced by the organizations so that the Ministry will take into consideration these issues and incorporate them in the future agreements. Because the trade agreements should ultimately benefit our exporters otherwise there is no point in signing them,” said K Subbi Reddy, regional director, Pharmexcil.