Oman seeks fast-track mechanism for India-GCC FTA
The Hindu, India
Oman seeks fast-track mechanism for India-GCC FTA
4 September 2006
New Delhi, Sept. 4 (PTI): Oman today said India and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council should create a fast-track mechanism for early completion of negotiations on the proposed Free Trade Agreement to boost economic engagement.
"India and GCC must have a fast-track mechanism to conclude the FTA. I will be stressing on this during a meeting with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath tomorrow," Oman’s Commerce and Industry Minister Maqbool Ali Sultan said here.
Having an FTA was particularly important as multilateral trade talks in the WTO were in a deadlock, he said.
India and the GCC - which also includes UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - have signed a framework agreement for an FTA and are currently in discussions to finalise the pact. The two sides had held talks in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh early this year and were likely to meet again before December, he said.
Ali Sultan asked Indian and Omani companies to invest in each other’s territories, especially by forming joint ventures in sectors such as energy, tourism, pharma, IT and education to increase two-way trade and investment flows.
Bilateral trade has risen substantially over the past five years, he said. While Oman’s export to India grew 472 per cent to 366 million dollars in 2005 from 64 million dollars in 2000, India’s exports to the middle-eastern country increased 164 per cent to 397 million dollars last year from 164 million dollars in 2000, he added.
The main reason for the steep rise in Oman’s exports was the 969 million dollar joint venture fertilizer project OMIFCO that supplies urea to India, he said, adding more such JVs could be set up by companies from the two countries.
