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India-MERCOSUR FTA can boost trade by 16 times: Rio Forum

PTI -New Delhi

Pointing at the potential of India-MERCOSUR FTA, pre-UNCTAD XI Rio Forum said the landmark agreement between the two could result in trade leapfrogging by 16 times from the current level.

While exports of MERCOSUR are projected to increase to US$ 13 billion from the current level of less than US$ 1 billion, India’s exports are set to rise to US$ 9.5 billion from the current level of US$ 653 million.

Addressing a forum on ‘Regionalism and South-South Cooperation: The Case Of MERCOSUR and India in Rio De Janeiro’, the UNCTAD secretary general Mr Rubens Ricupero hailed the agreement as heralding what the Brazilian president had recently referred to as the emergence of new trade geography.

The indicative trade potential is several times the current value of bilateral trade, which is presently limited to a narrow range of products only, Mr Jayant Dasgupta, joint secretary, commerce ministry, said. At present, 72 per cent of India’s imports from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which comprise MERCOSUR, are agricultural products, an official statement said here. Based on the considerable complementarities existing in the two economies, bilateral trade could grow in particular areas such as textiles, non-cereal agricultural products and processed foods, marine products, automobiles and drugs.

FICCI president Mr Y K Modi, National Confederation of Industry (Brazil) executive director Mr Jose Augusto, MMTC chairman Mr S D Kapoor also attended the forum.