look news india
New Delhi: India and the EFTA grouping of four European countries on Sunday signed a free trade agreement to boost investment and bilateral trade in goods and services. Under this agreement, India has been assured of investment of 100 billion dollars and employment to 10 lakh people in the next 15 years.
Member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) include Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
The agreement was signed almost 16 years after negotiations began in 2008, as negotiations were suspended in November 2013. Negotiations resumed in October 2016. There were 21 negotiations before signing.
For the first time in the history of a FTA (Free Trade Agreement), a legislative commitment has been made. Legislative commitment has been made for targeted investment and job creation.
According to the agreement, most domestic industrial goods from most EFTA countries will become duty free while duties on agricultural products will be reduced. India's main trading partner Switzerland has removed tariffs on industrial goods from January this year.
On the other hand, India will phase out customs duties on high-quality Swiss products such as wrist watches, chocolates, biscuits and wall clocks under its trade agreement with the EFTA bloc. Due to which these goods will be available to Indian consumers at lower prices.
According to Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, in the services sector, India has offered 105 sub-sectors such as accounting, business services, computer services, distribution and health. Second, Switzerland has offered 128 sub-regions, Norway has offered 114, Liechtenstein has offered 107 and Iceland has offered 110 sub-regions.
India-EFTA bilateral trade in 2022-23 was $18.65 billion. Which was $27.23 billion in 2021-22. The fiscal deficit in the last financial year was $14.8 billion.