January 2008
Report of the India-EFTA joint study group
Recognising the need to enhance bilateral trade, a Record of Understanding was
signed by Mr Kamal Nath, Commerce and Industry Minister of the Republic of India, and
Ms Doris Leuthard, Swiss Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of
Economic Affairs, Mr. Dag Terje Andersen, Minister of Trade and Industry of Norway, Ms
Valgerður Sverrisdóttir, Foreign Minister of Iceland and Ms Rita Kieber-Beck, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Liechtenstein, on December 1, 2006 in Geneva, for setting up a Joint
Study Group (JSG) between India and EFTA.
The Joint Study Group was mandated to
take a comprehensive view of bilateral economic linkages between India and EFTA,
covering among others, trade in goods and services, investment flows, and other areas
of economic cooperation, and to examine the feasibility of a bilateral broad based Trade
and Investment Agreement (TIA).
The JSG recommends that the governments of the EFTA States and India enter
into negotiations for a broad-based TIA keeping in view the recommendations made in
chapters 2 to 8 of this report.