The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have approached India to restart negotiations on the free trade agreement (FTA) while some members of the grouping have also individually sought for the agreement, commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said Thursday.
India had GCC had agreed to explore an FTA in 2004 but after two rounds of discussions in 2006 and 2008, the process was abandoned.
GCC headed by Saudi Arabia has five other members – Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oatar, Bahrain and Oman.
With UAE India already has an FTA which came into force on May 1, 2022. It is the second largest export market for India and fourth in the list of countries where imports come from.
Since the FTA India’s exports to UAE went up to $ 31.6 billion in FY 23 from $ 28 billion in 2021-22. India’s imports from UAE in 2022-23 were $ 53.2 billion up from $ 44.8 billion in FY22.
Among the economic regions GCC is the top source of imports. Imports from GCC countries were $133 billion in FY23, up 20.3% on year while exports were up 16.7% to $51.3 billion.
“Our relations with the Middle East are on a growth trajectory. We are in dialogue with many of the GCC countries for greater engagement in trade. We have large investments coming from GCC countries,” Goyal said.
With the European Union also the fifth round of negotiations are in progress right now. “We have had wonderful dialogue with the EU so far. It is a conglomeration of 27 countries so certainly it takes a little longer in terms of building and forging consensus among all the nations on their side.”
“Similarly we have to access various aspects of the trade agreement with the lens of 27 different countries with whom we are effectively entering into an agreement. So that will be a little longer drawn process but both the EU and India are committed to this agreement,” Goyal added.
The minister would also be having bilateral discussions with European Union officials post the G20 meeting that gets over on Friday.
“We will also be having much deeper engagement at both the official and ministerial level with many of the countries with which we are negotiating FTAs,” Goyal said.
Apart from the UK and EU, India is negotiating with Australia, Canada and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) that includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
