The services sector is a key component of India’s GDP, employment, trade, and foreign direct investment flow, and is the largest sector of the Indian economy contributing significantly to economic growth. India is among the top ten World Trade Organization member countries in trade in services.
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank, releases monthly data on India’s international trade in services. Below, we have reproduced two press releases from the Bank that document the value of exports and imports of services during the months of May 2018 and May 2017 for comparison.
India is not party to the ongoing Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) negotiations. However, some of the regional trade agreements India has forged contain provisions on cross-border trade in services, including the:
- ASEAN-India Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (Article 4).
- India – Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) (Chapter 6).
- India – Japan CEPA (Chapter 6).
- India – Singapore CEPA (Chapter 7).
- India – Malaysia CEPA (Chapter 8).
