FTA talks between India, Gulf council to resume soon.

The talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which have been in a limbo for a while now, are set to resume. A decision to this effect was taken during a recent visit by E Ahamed, minister of state for external affairs, to Bahrain.

“India and the GCC started negotiations on FTA as far back as 2005 but the two rounds of negotiations held so far have not translated into signing the agreement. India is ready to hold the third round of meeting for expeditious conclusion of the FTA,” Ahamed said.

Two rounds of talks for finalising aspects like tariff rules, rules of origin have been held and the third round of FTA negotiations is to be held in India, the dates are yet to be decided. Progress on India-GCC FTA has been slow; it was once hoped that a deal could be completed back in 2009.

The FTA will remove restrictive duties and push down tariffs on goods being traded.

This will provide Indian pharma and chemical industry to export their products to the Gulf region.

The first round of negotiations was held in GCC headquarters in Riyadh on March 21- 22, 2006. During this round, the GCC agreed to include services as well as investment and general economic cooperation along with goods in the GCC-India FTA.

Another hallmark of this round is an agreement on the modalities for negotiations that have been finalized. It was also agreed to conclude the negotiations at the earliest.

The second round of negotiations was held in Riyadh on September 9-10, 2008. In this, the discussion progressed in the earlier decided working groups and the proposed tariff liberalization scheduled was discussed during this round.

India’s two-way trade with the Gulf region countries has grown to more than $ 181 billion in 2012-13. Today, the GCC is India's largest trading partner group.

Source : financialexpress.com