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India-EFTA trade pact to come into force from Oct 1: Piyush Goyal
All the four EFTA countries, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway & Liechtenstein, have ratified the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and launched their documents with the repository, which is in Norway. The FTA will come into effect from October 1, Goyal said, addressing the Trade and Investment seminar organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( Assocham) here.
India signed the FTA with the four-member grouping in March 2024 with a binding commitment of $100 billion investment and one million direct jobs in the next 15 years in India.
Goyal said that his estimate is that $100 billion FDI will catalyse at least a $500 billion investment in India. This could be into brownfield or greenfield projects and maybe in some cases, even mature assets.
The FTA will provide a window to Indian exporters to access large European and global markets and also give a boost to Make in India and provide opportunities to a young and talented workforce. The pact comprises 14 chapters with main focus on market access related to goods, rules of origin, trade facilitation, trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, investment promotion, market access on services, intellectual property rights among others.
The minister said with all the regulation, regulatory overburden in Europe, more and more of their businesses are either shutting down, or becoming totally niche products, or uncompetitive. For them to be able to capture world markets, they will need an alternate and more cost competitive production base. India with high quality talent and cost effectiveness offers opportunities, he added.
EFTA is offering 92.2 per cent of its tariff lines which covers 99.6 per cent of India's exports. The EFTA's market access offer covers 100 per cent of non-agri products and tariff concessions on Processed Agricultural Products (PAP). India is offering 82.7 per cent of its tariff lines, which covers 95.3 per cent of EFTA exports, of which more than 80 per cent import is gold. The effective duty on gold remains untouched.
Sensitivity related to production linked incentive (PLI) in sectors such as pharma, medical devices and processed food etc. have been taken into consideration while extending offers. Sectors such as dairy, soya, coal and sensitive agricultural products are kept in the exclusion list, according to a commerce ministry document.
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