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Pic: V. Muraleedharan/Twitter
The time is right for India to explore a comprehensive economic partnership or a free trade agreement with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the world’s largest free trade area, according to commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyan, who recently told the 17th Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Exim Bank conclave that Indian officials will engage with African counterparts on the issue.
“We can help each other with raw materials, technologies, manufacturing, ideas and potential investment. We can help each other in education, health, in pharmaceuticals, and we can help each other become part of global value chains. And I think that is something that’s very important for both of us. We can do that. There is a great feature for our partnership,” he was quoted as saying by a CII press release.
AfCFTA brings together the 55 countries of the African Union and eight regional economic communities to create a single market for the continent.
The time is right for India to explore a comprehensive economic partnership or a free trade agreement with the African Continental Free Trade Area, the largest free trade area, according to commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyan, who told the 17th CII-Exim Bank conclave that Indian officials will engage with African counterparts on the issue.
“We are going to sign one (trade agreement) with the UK by Diwali which is in October. We’ll finish one with Canada by the end of the year. We’ll have one with the EU by the middle of next year. That’s almost pretty much a very large part of the developed world,” he said.
India is already thinking of similar free trade agreements with Israel with the GCC Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and possibly even the South African Customs Union, the secretary added.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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