IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ift/wpaper/2151.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Proposed India-EU Trade Agreement and UNECE 1958 Provisions: Empirical Results for Indian Automobile Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Debashis Chakraborty

    (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, India)

  • Biswajit Nag

    (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade,New Delhi,India)

  • Ripudaman Bhardwaj

    (Student, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, India)

Abstract

In 2014, India adopted the ‘Act East’ Policy to enhance trade flows with the East and Southeast Asian partners. A degree of caution in the outlook has however been noticed with the pull-out from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations in November 2019, on the ground of domestic economic considerations. In the subsequent period, India has expressed willingness to enter with trade agreements with the ‘West’, namely, the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA). However, these trade partnerships may not be effective in enhancing Indian exports only through tariff reforms, and the role of quality harmonization needs to be acknowledged in this context. The automobile sector is an important case in point. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations Working Party 29 (WP.29) has three agreements for harmonizing technical regulations on vehicles and auto-components to facilitate road safety, namely: UNECE 1958, 1997 and 1998. India joined the UNECE 1998 agreement in April 2006. It deserves mention that EU members are party to UNECE 1958 and have requested India at times to consider joining the 1958 Agreement. India has so far refrained from joining the UNECE 1958 standard, given the reservations against certain provisions of the same. The current paper intends to analyse the potential impact of the tariff reforms on the India-EU bilateral trade flows using the WITS-SMART analytical framework. The simulation results indicate that India’s export benefits would be limited vis-à-vis the EU, arguably owing to competition from countries already conforming to the UNECE 1958 standards. The analysis concludes that India needs to closely evaluate its options, keeping in mind the growing inclination towards UNECE 1958 even among some of the existing RTA partner countries (e.g., ASEAN). Thus, the Indian policymakers need to assess all these potential challenges before coming to a decision on the practicality of joining UNECE 1958 forum.

Suggested Citation

  • Debashis Chakraborty & Biswajit Nag & Ripudaman Bhardwaj, 2021. "The Proposed India-EU Trade Agreement and UNECE 1958 Provisions: Empirical Results for Indian Automobile Sector," Working Papers 2151, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
    • Handle: RePEc:ift:wpaper:2151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp://203.190.248.10/RePEc/ift/workingpapers/EC-21-51.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barnes,Tom, 2018. "Making Cars in the New India," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108433792, November.
    2. Samuel D. Scoles, 2016. "Harmonization of Standards and Mutual Recognition Agreements on Conformity Assessment in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam," Books, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), number 2015-rpr-15 edited by Samuel D. Scoles, July.
    3. Fukase, Emiko & Martin, Will, 2016. "The Economic Potential of an India-US Free Trade Agreement," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 31(4), pages 774-816.
    4. Pant, Manoj & Paul, Anusree, 2018. "The role of Regional Trade Agreements: in the Case of India," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 33(3), pages 538-571.
    5. Barnes,Tom, 2018. "Making Cars in the New India," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108422130, November.
    6. D. Chakraborty & B. Nag, 2021. "UNECE Agreements on Harmonization of Vehicle Standards and India: Empirical Results and Policy Implications," Springer Books, in: Pooja Lakhanpal & Jaydeep Mukherjee & Biswajit Nag & Divya Tuteja (ed.), Trade, Investment and Economic Growth, chapter 0, pages 285-308, Springer.
    7. Gamberoni, Elisa & Lanz, Rainer & Piermartini, Roberta, 2010. "Timeliness and contract enforceability in intermediate goods trade," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5482, The World Bank.
    8. Sadhana Srivastava & Rahul Sen, 2015. "Production fragmentation in trade of manufactured goods in India: prospects and challenges," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 22(1), pages 33-66, June.
    9. Sangeeta Khorana & Nicholas Perdikis, 2010. "EU-India Free Trade Agreement," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 11(2), pages 181-206, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Biswajit Nag & Debashis Chakraborty & Sakshi Aggarwal, 2021. "India’s Act East Policy: RCEP Negotiations and beyond," Working Papers 2150, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
    2. Biswajit Nag & Debashis Chakraborty & Author-Name: Sakshi Aggarwal, 2021. "India’s Act East Policy: RCEP Negotiations and Beyond," Working Papers 2101, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
    3. Jürgens, Ulrich & Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2019. "Response to Reviews of New Worlds of Work," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 546-548.
    4. Herr, Hansjörg & Teipen, Christina & Dünhaupt, Petra & Mehl, Fabian, 2020. "Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und Arbeitsbedingungen in globalen Wertschöpfungsketten," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 175, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    5. Dünhaupt, Petra & Herr, Hansjörg & Mehl, Fabian & Teipen, Christina, 2020. "Opportunities for development through integration in global value chains? A cross-sectoral and cross-national comparison," IPE Working Papers 140/2020, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    6. Houcine Boughanmi & Fatma Al-Saadi & Lokman Zaibet & Ibtisam Al Abri & Abdallah Akintola, 2021. "Trade in Intermediates and Agro-Food Value Chain Integration: The Case of the Arab Region," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.
    7. Teipen, Christina & Mehl, Fabian, 2021. "Die Rolle industrieller Beziehungen im Globalen Süden für soziales Upgrading in Wertschöpfungsketten [The role of industrial relations in the global South for social upgrading in global value ch," Industrielle Beziehungen. Zeitschrift für Arbeit, Organisation und Management, Verlag Barbara Budrich, vol. 28(2), pages 120-147.
    8. Peter Mayerhofer, 2013. "Wiens Industrie in der wissensbasierten Stadtwirtschaft. Wandlungsprozesse, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, industriepolitische Ansatzpunkte," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 57934.
    9. United Nations ESCAP, 2011. "Trade Facilitation in Asia and the Pacific: An Analysis of Import and Export Processes, Studies in Trade and Investment 71," STUDIES IN TRADE AND INVESTMENT, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), number tipub2615, April.
    10. Arjun SINGH & Dr. S.P. PADHI, 2020. "India and trade blocs: A gravity model analysis," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(4(625), W), pages 217-232, Winter.
    11. David Córcoles & Carmen Díaz-Mora & Rosario Gandoy, 2013. "Product sophistication: A tie that binds partners in international production sharing," Working Papers 13-03, Asociación Española de Economía y Finanzas Internacionales.
    12. Pami Dua & Ritu Suri, 2023. "India’s Bilateral Export Growth and Exchange Rate Volatility: A Panel GMM Approach," Springer Books, in: Pami Dua (ed.), Macroeconometric Methods, chapter 0, pages 123-148, Springer.
    13. Kyvik Nordås, Hildegunn, 2023. "Services in the India-EU Free Trade Agreement," Working Papers 2023:5, Örebro University, School of Business.
    14. Hiroyuki Taguchi & Don Chalani Imasha Rubasinghe, 2019. "Trade Impacts of South Asian Free Trade Agreements in Sri Lanka," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Ma, Alyson C. & Van Assche, Ari, 2014. "Vertical Specialization, Tariff Shirking, and Trade," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 390, Asian Development Bank.
    16. Marjan Petreski & Branimir Jovanovic & Igor Velickovski, 2017. "Tariff-Induced (De)industrialization: An Empirical Analysis," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 59(3), pages 345-381, September.
    17. Catherine Laffineur & El Mouhoud, 2015. "The jobs at risk from globalization: the French case," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 151(3), pages 477-531, August.
    18. Doan Ngoc Thang, 2024. "How do regional extreme events shape supply-chain trade?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 117-149, February.
    19. Jan Orbie & Sangeeta Khorana, 2015. "Normative versus market power Europe? The EU-India trade agreement," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 253-264, September.
    20. Cristina Herghelegiu & Evgenii Monastyrenko, 2020. "Risk and Cost Sharing in Firm-to-Firm Trade," DEM Discussion Paper Series 20-24, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Automobile safety standards; UNECE; WP29; Indian automotive sector trade; Intra-Industry Trade; EU-India FTA; WITS-SMART Simulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F17 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Forecasting and Simulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ift:wpaper:2151. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: S. Balasubramanian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iifttin.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.