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India and four members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) signed an economic pact worth more than $100 billion (91.4 billion euros) on Sunday.
Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, but none of them are members of the European Union.
The agreement must be ratified by all five signatories before it can enter into force. Switzerland plans to do so by 2025.
What do we know about the India-EFTA agreement?
Piyush Goyal, India’s trade minister, said that under the agreement, India will eliminate most import duties on industrial products from EFTA in exchange for $100 billion in investments over 15 years.
The agreement was signed after 21 rounds of negotiations over 15 years.
“This is a modern trade agreement, fair, just and a win-win for all five countries,” Goyal said.
The Swiss government announced that New Delhi will eliminate or partially eliminate tariffs on 95.3% of industrial imports from Switzerland, either immediately or over time.
In a separate statement, Oslo said it had brought import duties on most Norwegian products close to zero.
“Norwegian companies exporting to India currently face high import taxes of up to 40% on certain products,” said Norwegian Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre.
“With the new agreement, we have been able to reduce import duties to almost all Norwegian products to zero,” he said.
Prime Minister Modi appeals to economic qualifications to reach agreement
The announcement comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks re-election in May’s general election.
His campaign has emphasized high GDP growth in the past quarters and his government’s plans to transform India into a developed country.
Prime Minister Modi aims to achieve annual exports of $1 trillion by 2030. In recent years, India has signed trade agreements with Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
India is the EFTA region’s fifth largest trading partner after the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. New Delhi’s trade ministry estimated that two-way trade with the group will reach $25 billion in 2023.
sdi/nm (Reuters, AFP)
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