In the ongoing review of the India-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, India will be pushing for the creation of a steel “sub-group” aiming for import protection within the overall framework of the agreement, a senior Indian government official said on Thursday, August 24.
The government official said that, while the broad objective of the review is to further expand trade between the two countries, India’s Ministry of Commerce is also looking at how trade in each industrial segment has developed since the agreement came into force in 2010.
The India-South Korea trade agreement, formally called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, came into effect in January 2010.
It will be the endeavor of Indian officials negotiating the review of the trade agreement to see that a sub-group is created specifically for steel and related products across the value chain so that “legitimated import protection could be incorporated into keeping the interests of both countries intact,” the official said.
It has been noted that in the course of the review South Korean negotiators have sought the easing of Indian import restrictions on steel products originating from South Korea on the grounds that steel imported from the latter comprises special steel products which are not produced by Indian steel mills.
According to government data, South Korea has accounted for about 24 percent of total steel products shipped into India. However, the annual growth of South Korean steel imports has slowed down to about three percent since the Indian government imposed a slew of import restrictions last year, including antidumping and safeguard duties. This compares to an average annual growth rate of steel imports from South Korea at 29 percent until the financial year 2015-16.