Third round of India-Peru FTA underway in New Delhi; will boost investment and trade

Financial Express - 7 December 2018

Third round of India-Peru FTA underway in New Delhi; will boost investment and trade
By: Huma Siddiqui

The third round of talks for the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the South American nation Peru is taking place in New Delhi, with the bilateral trade touching$3.1 billion.

The third round of talks for the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the South American nation Peru is taking place in New Delhi, with the bilateral trade touching $3.1 billion. Top diplomatic sources confirmed to Financial Express Online that “Officers from both countries are meeting for the third round of negotiations in New Delhi until Friday.”

Since both countries are keen to expand the trade basket between the two especially in the agriculture and earth minerals, early conclusion of this special agreement will help in liberalizing norms for trade in goods and services and deepen their trade and investments.

The talks of the special trade agreement with Peru was started in 2017, as has been reported by FE earlier, the two sides have had two rounds of talks earlier.

A high level team from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had travelled to Lima last year to study the feasibility of having such an agreement with the South American nation and identified the issues that could be addressed to expedite the agreement.

The outgoing ambassador of Peru in India, Jorge Juan Castañeda Méndez had told Financial Express Online in an earlier interaction that Peru could be used by Indian investors as a gateway to the region. There are a number of opportunities in the South American nation in various sectors including construction of roads, highways, ports, and airports. Also, since both have complementary seasons, Indians will soon be eating mangoes and potatoes from that country. A lot of citrus fruits, avocado, grapes and quinoa are already here.

According to Sandip Wasnik, an independent Latin America and Caribbean Market Specialist, that, “Peru is one of the most extensively mineralised countries in the world. Currently, it the largest producers of copper and is also a major producer of gold, silver, zinc among other minerals. The country has 11% of the world’s copper reserves, 5 % of its Gold, 21% of its Silver, 12.5% of Zinc, 8% of Lead and 3 % of Tin reserves.”

Import of Gold from Peru has gone up from last year’s $ 1.3 bn and it has potential of going up further. India is buying copper from Peru as there is huge concentration of Copper which Indian mining companies can explore.

Peru is also the second largest exporter of table grapes- Red Globe variety- to India, a position it holds even today. These grapes are typically available in Indian supermarkets between December and April every year.

source : Financial Express

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