Estimating the Impact of the India–ASEAN Free Trade Agreement on Indian Industries

Abstract

This study shows that intermediate goods will be more affected (both adversely and favourably) than final goods due to ASEAN–India FTA. Other interesting conclusions include tariffs do not matter at all for a major part of the industries and for them the agreement has no significance. In fact, some of the most debated commodities fall in this category. For them though tariff rates have steadily increased over time, so has imports imparting a wrong sign to the tariff elasticity which means that reasons other than tariffs determine their imports and there is no point in putting them in the sensitive or exclusion list.