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The commerce ministry held deliberations with experts, former officers and senior officials from different departments on framing a standard operating procedure (SoP) for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and other related issues under these agreements. 

The ministry said the participants also deliberated on SoP for FTA negotiations, capacity building and resource management for trade negotiations as well as certain contemporary issues under modern FTAs such as labour, environment, and gender. It said economic assessment and modelling of FTAs, addressing new disciplines into FTAs such as labour, environment, gender, and indigenous people; and services and digital trade in FTAs were among the main themes for discussions.

It further said SoP for FTA negotiations including stakeholder consultations; capacity building and FTA resource management; and leveraging trade agreements to address emerging areas such as CBAM (carbon border adjustment mechanism), supply chain disruptions, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence were also discussed. It said that participants in the economic assessment session highlighted that detailed economic studies, including models like computable general equilibrium, are necessary to guide FTA negotiations. The participants also discussed the need for careful consideration of trade and industrial policies together.