What ails India’s free trade agreements (FTA)? (Financial Express)

The Financial Express (India) published an op-ed by South Asia Office, Project Manager Barun Deb Pal and co-author Sanjib Pohit on the lack of harmonized standards and certification issues that increase transaction costs plague India’s FTAs. All FTAs are bound by the rules, which need to be adhered to if one is to benefit from the tariff concessions. The authors suggest a revisit of all FTAs, and introduce an autonomic decision-making process to strengthen principle-based economic judgments, thereby reducing transaction costs of trading.