Over the past twenty years, countries around the world have increasingly embraced trade agreements at both the country-to-country (bilateral) level and amongst groupings (often geographical) of multiple countries (regional level). With rapidly integrating economies, governments are more frequently taking initiatives to form/reform their trading arrangements through direct negotiations. Given the protracted process of multilateral trade negotiations of WTO-bilateral and regional trade agreements are setting the framework for trade liberalization in the 21st century.

The role of bilateral and regional trade agreements is increasingly important due to the emergence of the comprehensive trade agreements, such as the current Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which seek to have a greater impact on the international trading environment than existing FTAs. Moreover, the emergence of the comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement demonstrates that the recent global economic downturn has not inhibited progress towards greater trade liberalization at a broader Asia- Pacific level.

The Indian textile industry as well will be influenced by the following FTAs:

For India, the RCEP presents a decisive platform which could influence its strategic and economic status in the Asia-Pacific region and bring to fruition its "Act East Policy." It is expected to be an ambitious agreement bringing the five biggest economies of the region � Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea � into a regional trading arrangement. Together, the RCEP group of countries accounts for a third of the world's gross domestic product, and 27.4 per cent and 23.0 per cent of the world's goods and services trade, respectively.

For the India-EU BTIA, it is believed that under the proposed FTA there will be abolition of duty on textiles and clothing by both, EU and India on reciprocal basis, which will help to create conditions conducive to enlarged exports of Indian textiles and clothing material. The abolition or drastic reduction in duty and increased market size, is expected to give a boost to the exports of textiles and clothing from India in a big way. Increased export means increased production, which would result in increased employment in India. More job opportunities would emerge in this sector in different categories from production to marketing.

The signing of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)�which is an economic union comprising Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Armenia�has immense potential for India to boost its relationship with the members of the region. Indian textile industry will benefit as the FTA will provide inherent incentives on the duty front. In particular, knitwear exporters will be able to reap the advantages of the FTA as the agreement will make Indian products cost-competitive.

Recently, the government has advised exporters to look beyond euro zone and explore opportunities in emerging markets such as Latin America, CIS nations and Africa. Indian exports to Eurozone are 18-19 per cent of the country's total exports, a reason enough for Indian exporters to explore markets in Latin America, CIS nations and Africa. And for exploring these markets, the best way would be to sign trade agreements with these regions to tap the maximum potential in these markets and leverage upon the market base that they offer. Till now, businesses and industry have failed to fully exploit the potential of the FTAs signed by India in terms of market access opportunities, while the enterprises from the partner countries have strengthened their presence in the Indian market. Therefore, the net impact seems to be unfavorable to India.

Indian industry needs to become more aggressive and exploit opportunities that the FTAs provide rather than remaining as passive onlookers to Indian domestic market. There may have been cases where the FTAs may have given unfair advantage to partner enterprises but in such cases one can easily invoke safeguards that are built in each agreement. No matter how many limitations FTAs may have, the truth is that the economic and social growth of a nation is not possible without FTA's. Countries have to build each other to create a better future.