India and the four-nation European bloc EFTA ink free trade agreement on Sunday, March 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: X@EFTAsecretariat
India and the four-nation European bloc EFTA on March 10 signed a free trade agreement to advertise investments and enhance two-way trade in items and providers.
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
The agreement has 14 chapters, together with trade in items, guidelines of origin, mental property rights (IPRs), trade in providers, funding promotion and cooperation, authorities procurement, technical limitations to trade and trade facilitation.
“EFTA countries gain market access to a major growth market. Our companies strive to diversify their supply chains while rendering them more resilient. India, in return, will attract more foreign investment from EFTA, which will ultimately translate into an increase in good jobs…All in all, the TEPA will allow us to make better use of our economic potential and create additional opportunities for both India and the EFTA States,” Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, talking on behalf of the EFTA Member States, stated.
Under free trade pacts, two buying and selling companions considerably cut back or remove customs duties on the utmost variety of items traded between them, apart from easing norms to advertise trade in providers and investments.
India and EFTA have been negotiating the pact, formally dubbed the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), since January 2008. Thirteen rounds of talks had been held until November 2013 earlier than negotiations had been placed on maintain.
Both sides resumed the negotiations in October 2023 and concluded it in a fast-track mode.
EFTA nations will not be a part of the European Union (EU). It is an inter-governmental organisation for the promotion and intensification of free trade. It was based instead for states that didn’t want to be a part of the European neighborhood.
India is negotiating a complete free trade agreement individually with the EU, the 27-nation bloc.
India had earlier used the technique of expediting or fast-tracking FTA negotiations efficiently with the UAE and Australia.
India-EFTA two-way trade was $18.65 billion in 2022-23 in comparison with $27.23 billion in 2021-22. The trade deficit was $14.8 billion within the final fiscal.
Switzerland is the biggest buying and selling accomplice of India adopted by Norway within the bloc.
‘It symbolises shared commitment to fair, equitable trade’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated the India-EFTA trade agreement symbolises our shared dedication to open, honest and equitable trade.
He additionally stated that the worldwide management of EFTA nations in innovation and R&D throughout numerous spheres like digital trade, banking and monetary providers, and pharma will open up new doorways of collaboration.
“Heartiest Congratulations and best wishes to the negotiators and signatories involved in the signing of India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA),” Mr. Modi stated in a written message.
The Prime Minister’s assertion was learn by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal right here within the presence of ministers and officers of EFTA nations.
“In the last 10 years, India’s economy has taken a quantum leap, moving from being the world’s eleventh largest economy to the fifth largest. Our next goal is to make India’s economy in the world,” the Prime Minister stated.
