PTI | | Posted by Nisha Anand
India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have agreed to pursue a free commerce settlement (FTA) between the 2 areas and resume the negotiations, Commerce and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal mentioned on Thursday. GCC is a union of six international locations within the Gulf area — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. The council is the most important buying and selling bloc of India.
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India’s exports to the GCC member international locations grew by 58.26 per cent to about USD 44 billion in 2021-22 towards USD 27.8 billion in 2020-21, in response to knowledge from the commerce ministry. Bilateral commerce in items has elevated to USD 154.73 billion in 2021-22 from USD 87.4 billion in 2020-21. Companies commerce between the 2 areas was valued at round USD 14 billion in 2021-22, with exports aggregated at USD 5.5 billion and imports at USD 8.3 billion.
“We’ve got agreed to pursue the free commerce settlement between GCC and India and resume the negotiations and conclude the identical on the earliest,” Goyal advised reporters right here in a joint press convention with GCC Secretary Common Nayef Falah M Al-Hajraf right here.
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GCC international locations contribute nearly 35 per cent of India’s oil imports and 70 per cent of its fuel imports. India’s total crude oil imports from the GCC in 2021-22 had been about USD 48 billion, whereas LNG and LPG imports in 2021-22 stood at about USD 21 billion.
Earlier in 2006 and 2008, each side had negotiated a commerce pact, which stopped due to some causes.
When requested in regards to the subsequent spherical of talks to renew the negotiations, Goyal mentioned groups of each side would resolve that.
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