New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal Wednesday proposed signing of free trade agreements individually with the members of the 4-member Mercosur bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. His statement comes as the efforts to expand the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with the Mercosur are stuck.“I propose to either expand the MERCOSUR trade agreement or look at trade deals bilaterally,” he said at a CII event.India went ahead with a bilateral trade deal with UAE when the talks to secure a trade pact with Gulf Cooperation Council nations weren’t making much headway.Goyal also said that India is also working with Chile to expand its PTA with Chile and turn it into a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.The PTA with Chile was signed in 2006 and expanded in 2017. Within the LAC region which includes 33 countries the FTA negotiations with Peru are in advanced stages.Live EventsThe minister also pushed for early conclusion of FTA talks. He said that agreements which are long-drawn cannot be fructified into solid partnership.“We have been talking about a free trade agreement with Peru for a very long time. We need to make up our minds on where we want to get with that…FTAs that are negotiated over as much as 20 rounds, negotiated over engagements in once in six months or 12 months can never fructify into solid partnership,” Goyal said.“We must make up our mind either we do it (FTA), we do it fast. Or we agree to trade the way we are and see what we can do best within our existing arrangement,” he added.He said one of India’s concerns while negotiating trade agreements with LAC countries is the significant presence of non-market economies in the region.“Any agreement we are looking at also has to address how we will ensure that non-market economies do not make use of your region as a route to come to India,” Goyal said. Non-market economies include China.“If we agree to respect each other’s sensitivities we can start looking at ways to expand trade faster,” he said.
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