Talks on Free Trade Agreement between India, Gulf Cooperation Council will start from November 24

New Delhi. India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will announce on Thursday the commencement of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to boost commerce and investment between the two regions. An officer gave this information. The GCC is a confederation of six countries in the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain. According to commerce ministry data, India’s exports to the GCC are set to increase by 58.26 per cent to nearly $44 billion in 2021-22. It was only $ 27.8 billion in 2020-21.

At the same time, the share of GCC members in India’s total imports increased to 18 per cent in 2021-22 from 15.5 per cent in 2020-21. At the same time, bilateral trade also increased to $ 154.73 billion in 2021-22. It was $ 87.4 billion in 2020-21. Officials from the GCC will come here to announce the talks, said an official. This would be a sort of resumption of FTA negotiations as two rounds of talks between India and the GCC have already taken place in 2006 and 2008.

India mainly imports crude oil and natural gas from Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. On the other hand, India exports pearls, precious gems, metals, iron and steel, chemicals etc. to these countries. The share of these six countries in India’s total exports increased to 10.4 per cent in 2021-22 from 9.51 per cent in 2020-21. Similarly, imports also increased by 85.8 per cent to $110.73 billion from $59.6 billion in 2020-21.