'India one of most open economies, exploring trade agreements with US, EU beneficial to domestic industry'

India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become one of the world's most open economies with very few barriers to trade, both tariff and non-tariff, will avoid pitfalls of entering agreements, which are in reality FTAs by stealth with countries with whom it is already suffering huge trade imbalance and market distortions, according to government sources.India is exploring trade agreements with the US and European Union, where the Indian industry and services will be competitive and benefit from access to large developed markets.Even as India on Monday decided not to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as it does not satisfactorily address its outstanding concerns, the government has earlier taken a series of "pro-Indian industry" measures.According to the sources "poor negotiations" of FTAs (free trade agreements) by the previous government caused harm to Indian industry and led to the distorted trade balance.The sources said India has already secured ...