Trade impact of SADC-India FTA on textiles and clothing sectors

Pluri-lateral trade agreements have been the topic of the hour in trade circles, since late 2000's, though they have been slowed down in recent trade policy developments in UK and USA. However, countries like India and African nations that have been left out of such mega deals have been considering striking deals among themselves. In this paper, we examine the potential impact of India-SADC (South African Development Community) FTA on these countries, especially focusing on their crucial Textiles and Clothing (T&C) sectors. Apart from the widely used GTAP framework, we also employ the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) analysis in conjunction with it, to draw implications on FTA impct on RCA, which is mostly positive as per our analysis. Otherwise, India stands to gain, while the SADC countries have mixed effects across sectors, with an overall positive effects.