The Hindu Business Line : India will mull having FTAs with GCC nations, says Jaitley

INDIA and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday moved a significant step closer towards strengthening economic ties, with both the sides accepting that there is a need to have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two regions.

Addressing the first GCC-India Industrial Conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr Arun Jaitley, said there was a distinct possibility of higher level of trade between India and the GCC countries. India would seriously consider having FTAs with these countries, as the economies of both the regions have the potential to supplement each other.

Indeed, the trade between India and the six GCC countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — has been on the rise during the last few years.

Exports from the GCC countries to India have increased from $1,565.95 million in 2001-02 to about $1,889.25 million in 2002-03. Indian exports to these countries during the same period have swelled from $3,798 million to $4,913 million.

In fact, the UAE has the distinction of being the largest trading partner of India in the GCC, followed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. While the GCC's largest export to India is perhaps oil, the main products imported by it from India were in the textile, precious metals and food product segments.

The inauguration of the conference included the signing of a memorandum of understanding between CII and the Federation of GCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which envisages, among other things, drafting of the modalities for setting up an India-GCC Joint Business Group to further strengthen the "traditional friendship and the existing economic and industrial cooperation" between the two regions.

The MoU also envisages promotion of industrial cooperation between the two regions to boost two-way investment, identification of specific areas for industrial cooperation with particular reference to the private sector, exploration of possibilities of cooperation in areas such as technology, quality, environment, human resource development and professional training, facilitation of sectoral industrialisation and encouragement of participation in trade and industrial exhibitions to be held in the GCC and India.

Mr Khaled Abdulla Al Sager, Deputy Treasurer of Kuwait Chamber of Commerce, Mr Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Attiyah, GCC Secretary General, Mr Abdullah Hamad Al Attiyah, Minister of Energy, State of Quatar, Mr Hashim bin Abdullah Al Yamani, Minister of Commerce, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mr Maqbool bin Ali bin Sultan, Minister of Commerce, Sultanate of Oman, Mr Mohammed Khalfan bin Kharbash, Minister of Finance, UAE, and Mr Anand Mahindra, CII President, spoke at the inaugural function.