India signs preferential trade agreement with Chile
Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India
Press Release
India Signs Preferential Trade Agreement With Chile - Watershed In Ties Between The Two Countries, Says Kamal Nath
8 March 2006
India today signed a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Chile, which, in the words of Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, marks a “watershed in ties between the two countries as it will impart a new dimension to our trade relations in the times to come”. The Agreement was signed by Shri S.N. Menon, Commerce Secretary, from the Indian side and Mr. Jorge Heine, Ambassador of Chile in India on behalf of the Chilean Government in the presence of Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Commerce. Shri Kamal Nath said the PTA would take bilateral trade to a higher plane as the next few years would witness a substantial growth in two-way trade. In 2004-05, total trade between India and Chile stood at US $ 447.54 million.
The PTA provides tariff preferences ranging from 10 to 50% on 178 tariff lines at the 8-digit level to Chile and a similar range of preferences on 296 tariff lines at the 8-digit level to India. It will benefit 98% of the items being exported by Chile to India and 91% of the goods being exported by India to Chile currently. The Indian products which would benefit include textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering and agricultural machinery. The Chilean products benefiting from the PTA are copper, cellulose, newsprint, iodine, fish meal, wood boards, planks and salmon.
Both sides also discussed the draft reports of the Joint Study Group (JSG) and agreed to submit their findings to their respective governments to consider further action on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Chile has been one of India’s major trading partners in Latin America and the Government of India attaches a great deal of significance to promoting commercial relations with Chile, Shri Kamal Nath said, adding that Indian economy was also going at a rapid pace and India now ranked among the world’s 10 largest economies.
“The Preferential Trade Agreement strategically positions Chile to access and to capitalise on the Indian market and its technological assets. For both India and Chile, the availability of clean energy technologies, information technology enabled services, applications of peaceful uses of outer space, access to low cost medicines, and harvesting ocean resources are very important. These are some areas where both our countries can work together. Among non-traditional sectors, there is enormous scope for cooperation in fruits and vegetables or agro-based industries”, Shri Kamal Nath said.
