New Delhi, Oct 16 (UNI) India and Brazil today agreed to expand the Framework Agreement between India and MERCOSUR member States to make it substantial for a significant share of bilateral trade to benefit from tariff preferences.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin welcomed the interest of both India and MERCOSUR member States in deepening their existing Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) for promoting trade and investment.
MERCOSUR is a South American trade bloc established in 1991 and comprises five full members, seven Associate countries and two observer countries. The member States are Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, Venezuela is an Associate member. It was a full member but was suspended in 2016.
Recalling the Framework Agreement signed between India and MERCOSUR on June 17, 2003, with the aim of strengthening relations and promoting the expansion of trade in conformity with the rules and disciplines of WTO, India and Brazil agreed that the expansion of the Agreement should cover both tariff and non-tariff issues related to trade and economic partnership;
They also agreed to promote active participation of private sector and other stakeholders to support the negotiation process.
They said the next step in this initiative should be the establishment of a technical dialogue between the Parties, including the holding of a meeting of the Joint Administration Committee created under Article 23 of the PTA with a view to defining the scope of the expansion;
The Brazilian side indicated that it will work in a coordinated manner with its MERCOSUR partners towards a substantial, swift, and mutually beneficial deepening of the Agreement.
