Trade agreements with UK, Australia, Gulf on the cards for India
Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said India is embarking with the United Kingdom, Australia on free trade agreement (FTA) and hoped to look at the entire Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
"It's a journey that we are all embarking with the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, Australia and with the European Union. We hope to also look at the entire Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (CEPA)," Goyal said. He continued, "in all of these journeys, I think UAE and India have made an excellent document, covering a wide variety of subjects can certainly help as a template and set the goal and agenda for our future engagement."
He also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led India from the front over the CEPA signed with UAE and his vision has always been to achieve a "historic high in goods and services" between the two countries.
"A historic high in goods and services, that is what PM Modi's vision always was. He led from the front. He would monitor the progress regularly. He would encourage businesses to direct interaction. He met with all our export promotions council, all our industry associations. He talked to 180 missions from all across the world encouraging them to facilitate our businesses," Goyal said.
He said that the delegation of business persons and export promotion council is one of the largest delegations that has ever gone out from India for business to business meetings.
The minister pointed to the increasing trade possibilities.
"It is not something of today..for generations people from the UAE would come to Mumbai, for example, to trade in goods, to do shopping but over the years I think we were not able to keep that momentum. This partnership is reigniting that old spirit..the enthusiasm that was there. I felt encouraged to reset our goals and look for a much broader canvass in which this partnership should work and possibly going up to USD 250 billion between UAE and India by 2030."
(ANI)