Amidst rapid economic globalization and the slow progress of multilateral trade negotiations, regional economic cooperation has been developing at a fast rate worldwide. Free Trade Area (FTA), in particular bilateral FTA, has become the main form of regional economic cooperation. Due to the rising trade protectionism, many countries have turned to strengthening regional trade liberalization arrangements and conclude bilateral FTA. As the world's largest developing countries and emerging economies, both China and India follow this trend, accelerating the implementation of FTA strategy respectively. Bilateral trade and investment between India and China has grown over the past decade. There further exists substantial scope of expansion of trade between the two countries. As FTAs lead to expansion of markets, with India-People's Republic of China FTA, Indian business could expect to have greater market access for its goods and services. However, such agreements would not come with benefits alone. They would be accompanied by associated challenges and threats. This article presents the recent trends in the PRC-India trade and examines the likely impact of their free trade agreement.
India, China, Free trade agreements, Economic cooperation, Protectionism, Liberalization
