Stakeholder Consultation Meeting on Free Trade Agreement organized by Department of Industries Commerce and Export Promotion at Tourism Plaza

The Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India and  Department of Industries, Commerce & Export promotion , Government of Telangana jointly organized Stakeholders’ Consultation on India-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA)

A High-level delegation headed by Shri Sunil Kumar, IAS, Joint Secretary, Foreign Trade (CIS), and accompanied by Dr Ram Upendra Das, Professor& Head, Centre for Regional Trade, and Shri Vijay Shanker Pandey, Under Secretary, Foreign Trade (CIS), Department of Commerce, Government of India addressed the meeting.  From the Government of Telangana, Shri Ahmad Nadeem, IAS, Commissioner of Industries, Commerce and Export Promotion and Shri T Sudhin Paul, Assistant Director, C&EP, were also present.

The objective of holding these consultations is to have prior inputs from the Indian businesses in these states who could find export and import opportunities in the five countries of the EAEU viz. Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. In the first leg of the consultations that were held today in Hyderabad wherein various exporters of goods such as pharmaceuticals, processed food, light engineering goods etc. participated. It also included exporters of services belonging to IT, ITES, Health, Wellness, Medical Value Tourism, Logistics, Hotel & Resorts, Tourism, etc.

“India and EAEU are at cusp of redefining their economic linkages including trade in goods, trade in services and investment. This would be realized by concluding a comprehensive FTA between India and EAEU, complemented by operationalization of INSTC multi-modal transport corridor and Green Corridor Protocol”, said Shri Sunil Kumar. He further said that inputs gathered from the stakeholders of the state of Telangana would immensely help at the time of negotiations of the India-EAEU FTA.

The proposed FTA has the potential to raise the existing bilateral trade from USD 8 billion to the range of USD 37-62 billion, as per the estimates of the Joint  Feasibility  Study Report, highlighted Prof Ram Upendra Das.

Shri Vijay Shanker Pandey said that the inputs from the stakeholders would be required on a regular basis during the negotiations so that the negotiating outcomes are relevant to the Indian businesses.

 Shri  Ahmad Nadeem, complimented the GOI for holding such a consultation which is one of its kind to bridge information gap among stakeholders and urged that we all keep working together.

-Press note