India Actively Negotiating Trade Pacts With US, EU: Goyal
New Delhi: India is currently negotiating free trade agreements with a number of trading partners, including the United States and the European Union, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. He said India was working with ‘trusted’ trading partners through these agreements to strengthen economic ties.
“We have all seen the weaponization of trade. We have all seen the importance of having reliable partners around the world,” he said, adding that currently India is in talks with individual countries and groups of about 50 nations in total.
These remarks come at a time when a sharp US increase in tariffs is disrupting global trade. The Donald Trump administration has been imposing a 50 percent import duty on Indian goods entering American markets since August 27.
The minister stated that the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) is also interested in trade agreement negotiations.
The Gulf Cooperation Council is a union of six countries in the Gulf region (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain).
New Delhi has already implemented a comprehensive trade agreement with the UAE. Negotiations with Oman are about to be completed.
Bahrain and Qatar want to enter into negotiations with India, he said, adding that the GCC is also talking.
“The entire group of six countries wants to join. We are talking with New Zealand… We are in active talks with the USA and the 27-nation EU,” the minister said at Ficci’s annual general meeting.
India and the US are negotiating a bilateral trade agreement. Six rounds of negotiations have been completed so far. They aim to complete the first phase of the agreement by autumn of this year.
Additionally, the minister said India is reviewing trade agreements to ensure greater balance with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc and Korea.
Asean members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We are working with Eurasia (EAEU), which started negotiations yesterday or the day before. We are equally busy with Israel to start negotiations very quickly. Canada and India are considering CEPA (comprehensive economic partnership agreement). They will start a conversation around this next week.”
He said the five-member Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Mercosur group also wanted to negotiate.
SACU countries include South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini, and is the world’s oldest customs union with a history of more than a century.
Mercosur is a trading bloc in Latin America consisting of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
India and the five-nation Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed the terms of the agreement on August 20.
Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are the five member states of the EAEU.
India and Canada have agreed to restart CEPA negotiations with the aim of increasing two-way trade to $50 billion by 2030.
Canada has paused free trade agreement negotiations with India in 2023.
In a trade agreement, two or more countries negotiate provisions that would significantly reduce or eliminate import duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. They also simplify rules to encourage the movement of professionals and attract investments.
India has so far implemented such agreements with many countries, including Singapore, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Australia.
