THE free trade agreement between India and the four-nation European bloc EFTA will be implemented from October 1, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. The two sides signed the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) on March 10, 2024. Under the pact, India has received an investment commitment of USD 100 billion in 15 years from the grouping while allowing several products, such as Swiss watches, chocolates, and cut and polished diamonds, at lower or zero duties. “India-EFTA TEPA to come into effect from 1st October,” Goyal said in a post on X. The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. The bloc has committed an investment of USD 100 billion -- USD 50 billion within 10 years after the implementation of the agreement and another USD 50 billion in the next five years -- which would facilitate the creation of 1 million direct jobs in India. This is a first-of-its-kind pledge agreed upon in any of the trade deals signed by India so far. The commitment is the key substance of the agreement, which took almost 16 years to conclude, for India in return for opening its markets for several products coming from the EFTA nations. The biggest trading partner of India in the bloc is Switzerland. India has low trade volumes with the remaining three countries. In the pact, India is offering 82.7 per cent of its tariff lines or product categories, which cover 95.3 per cent of EFTA exports, of which more than 80 per cent of imports are gold.

 

 

UNION Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said that India will enter international trade agreements only if they serve the country’s interests. Addressing the media during an event organised by leading industry chamber Assocham here, the Minister said if India gets a good trade deal, it will go ahead with it. Goyal said that negotiations with the US are ongoing, adding that trade deals would materialise only if these are in the country’s larger interests. “If it doesn’t happen, we will not do it. India always puts the country’s interest first,” the Minister asserted. India and the US teams have concluded the fifth round of talks for the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in Washington this week. The negotiations were held for four days in Washington, DC. India’s chief negotiator and special secretary in the Department of Commerce, Rajesh Agrawal, lead the team for negotiations. He further stated that India has huge domestic demand. “We have imports coming into the country which can be replaced by developing domestic industry to scale for high-quality production.”