India’s trade agreements with Asian countries have led to ballooning of trade deficit with these countries in non-tyre rubber products, reveals the statistics from the ministry of commerce.
Between FY09 and FY11, India had signed three major trade agreements with Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Korea and Japan. Trade deficit in non-tyre rubber products with these three trading partners has gone up from `651 crore in FY09 to `1,725 crore in FY13, a growth of 165 per cent.
This data was formulated by studying the commerce ministry data by Tata Strategic Management Group on behalf of All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA). Trade agreements include FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) and CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement).
“Trade agreements have been a losing proposition for India as far as non-tyre rubber products are concerned. Small and medium rubber units have been at the receiving end of a barrage of cheap import of finished rubber goods, leading to high trade deficit. The new study supports our case for a relook at the trade agreements as the non-tyre rubber industry has been adversely affected by this”, said Niraj Thakkar, President AIRIA.
We have asked the government to either include non-tyre rubber goods in negative list in these trade agreements or provide trade protection in terms of safeguard duty.
Natural rubber, the key raw material for rubber industry is in the negative list in many such trade agreements, he pointed out.
Rubber industry is dominated by around 6,000 micro, small and medium sized manufacturing units in different clusters across the country.