Work on FTA between EAEU and India to begin in 2017

Development of trade and investment cooperation between India and the Eurasian Economic Union is a key factor in their bilateral cooperation, said Alexander Tsybulski, Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development.

"In particular, we have prepared the first consolidated edition of the draft report by the joint research group on the conclusion of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and its member states and the Republic of India. By the end of this year we plan to hold the group’s second meeting to resolve any outstanding issues and to discuss draft conclusions and recommendations," said Tsybulski.

He said this way, work on the development of the relevant agreement can be launched next year.

Russia and India need to restart EAEU free trade agreement talks

Tsybulski was part of the Russian delegation for the 22nd session of the Russian-Indian Intergovernmental Commission in New Delhi, on trade-economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation. The Russian delegation was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. The Indian delegation was headed by the Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj. The delegations discussed issues of bilateral trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation, and investment cooperation, said the press service of the Russian Economic Development Ministry.

Speaking about Russia-India trade, Tsyybulski said the volume has decreased by 11.8% this year and amounted to $ 3.4 billion. Exports from Russia fell by 17.9% ($ 2.2 billion), while Russia’s imports from India increased by 3.2% to $ 1.2 billion.

According to analysts, the volume of investment cooperation between the two countries is $ 12 billion, of which Indian investments in Russia amount to $ 8 billion and Russian investments in India amount to $4 billion.

"Today's figures for Russian-Indian investment cooperation indicate that we have work to do," said Tsybulski.

“In order to improve these indicators we have established a Working Group on the priority investment projects, whose objective is to increase the accumulated mutual investments made by each party to $15 billion by 2025. Currently, the list includes 20 priority projects,” he said.

The Working Group held its 4th meeting before the IRIGC, led by Tsybulsky along with India’s Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ramesh Abhishek.

The manufacture of lighting equipment for general and special purpose with a capacity of 60 thousand lamps per month, the plant for the production of butyl rubber with a capacity of 100,000 tons per year at the Reliance Industries industrial site, scheduled for launch in 2018, and the possibility of organizing the production of KAMAZ vehicles and products of the "Tractor plants" concern at India's industrial sites, were key issues discussed and commended by the delegations.

Trade between Russia, India could reach $30bln by 2025

In addition, work to advance the "Safe bus" project in the Indian market is continuing under the concept of "Smart City".

"It is encouraging that the majority of our projects are joint ventures in the field of high technology, production of goods with high added value, and infrastructure construction, which indicates the quality of our partnership," said Tsybulski.

He said the Ministry of Economic Development is working on the harmonization of the memorandum projects of cooperation with the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry and a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Indian Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises.

"We plan to sign the document during the Russian-Indian summit, coming up in October," he concluded.

First published by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

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