Implications of India-Asean Fta on India’s fisheries sector

Sarath Chandran, B.P. (2012): Implications of India-Asean Fta on India’s fisheries sector.

Abstract

India and ASEAN signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in trade in goods which came to effect from 1st January 2010. There were apprehensions on the likely impact of this RTA on some sensitive sectors of India such as agriculture, fisheries and plantation crop as large number of people depend on these sectors for their livelihood. India is a large consumer of marine products and export also export part of the catch to international markets (1.7 percent in total world export in 2007). Some of the ASEAN partners of India namely Thailand (5.82%), Vietnam (3.86) and Indonesia (2.14%) have larger presence in international fisheries trade and there is a possibility that they can export these products in to India in the post FTA period. In this context the paper looked in to the various provisions of India ASEAN FTA on fisheries sector and calculated trade complementarity and similarity using different trade indices. The paper found that India has taken adequate precaution to protect its marine sector from large scale dumping. The apprehension that India-ASEAN FTA will lead to substantial import of marine products in to India is unfounded.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Regional Trade Agreements, Revealed Comparative Advantage, Fisheries, India,ASEAN
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F15 - Economic Integration; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F10 - General; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F14 - Empirical Studies of Trade

References

Bhagavati, Jagdish and Arvind Panagaria. 1996. “The Theory of Preferential Trade Agreements: Historical evolution and Current Trends”. American Economic Review. 86(2): 82-87.

Ferto, Imre and Lionel J. Hubbard. 2002. “Revealed Comparative Advantage and Competitiveness in Hungarian Agri-Food Sectors”. Institute of Economics, Hungary Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Discussion Paper Series 2002/8.

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 2006. Fishery and Aquaculture Staatistics, Italy.

Kawai, Masahiro (2004), ‘Regional Economic Integration and Cooperation in East Asia,’ mimeo

Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA). 2007. “ Vision document for Indian Marine Products Exports Industry”, ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

Panagaria, Arvind. 2000. “Preferential Trade Liberalization: The Traditional Theory and New Developments”. Journalof Economic Literature. XXXVIII: 287-331.

Centre for Social Research, Impact of Trade and Globalisation on Gender in India:A Case Study of Women Workers in the Fisheries Sector, Prepared under UNCTAD- Govt. of India- DFID Project ‘Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalisation in India’.

Vollrath, T. L. 1991. “A Theoretical Evaluation of Alternative Trade Intensity Measures of Revealed Comparative Advantage”. Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 130: 265–279.

Weiss, John. 2004. “People’s Republic of China and its Neighbors: Partners or Competitors for Trade and Investment?”, Asian Development Bank Institute, Discussion Paper No. 13.