New Delhi: India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Sunday signed a landmark trade and economic partnership agreement (TEPA) to open up the EFTA markets for Indian businesses and the Indian markets for the EFTA. As part of the deal, the EFTA countries have committed to invest $100 billion in India over the next 15 years.
The EFTA comprises Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
This TEPA is the third free trade agreement that India has signed in recent years after earlier deals with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia. The agreement with the EFTA took nearly 15 years to come to fruition.
Piyush Goyal, the minister of commerce and industry, signed the EFTA on behalf of India in New Delhi. “It is for the first time in the history of the world that we are inking a free trade agreement, with a binding commitment from the EFTA countries to invest $100 billion in India on the back of the solid foundation laid in India,” he said.
A WATERSHED MOMENT!
The historic India-EFTA Trade & Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) is the first 'Free Trade Agreement' inked with a binding commitment to invest $100 billion in India from the European Free Trade Association countries. pic.twitter.com/8GFW2JUmyE
— Piyush Goyal (मोदी का परिवार) (@PiyushGoyal) March 10, 2024
“A big opportunity for businesses from the pharma sector, medical devices, food, R&D — so many sectors which can offer tremendous opportunities for our partners in this TEPA to not only enjoy the fruits of the Indian large demand and our demographic dividend but also the fact that we are a rules-based country,” Goyal added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a written statement said the agreement marks a new ‘watershed’ moment in the bilateral relationship between India and the EFTA countries.
“Despite structural diversities in many aspects, our economies possess complementarities that promise to be a win-win situation for all nations,” Modi said in the statement congratulating the two sides on the agreement.
Swiss Federal Councillor and Head of Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research Guy Parmelin, Iceland Minister of Foreign Affairs Bjarni Benediktsson, Liechtenstein Minister of Foreign Affairs Dominique Hasler and Norway Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre were in Delhi for the signing of the agreement.
Also read: Trade talks with EFTA conclude after 17 years, agreement to be signed ‘in next 10 days’
Trade between India & EFTA countries
India exported $1.926 billion worth of goods to the EFTA countries in the financial year 2022-23. It imported $16.738 billion worth of goods from the EFTA countries during the same period. India’s trade deficit with them stood at roughly $14.812 billion for the 2022-23 financial year, showed data published by the ministry of commerce and industry.
India’s largest trading partner within EFTA is Switzerland. India’s exports to the country stood at $1.346 billion in 2022-23, while imports from Switzerland stood at $15.793 billion.
The single largest commodity India imported from Switzerland was $12.642 billion worth of gold, according to the ministry of commerce and industry.
At the same time, India’s largest imports to Switzerland were organic chemicals worth $535.93 million and jewellery worth $375 million.
Chapters of TEPA
The agreement consists of 14 chapters, which include government procurement, investment promotion and cooperation, trade in services, trade remedies, sanitary conditions, trade in goods and protection of intellectual property.
Article 14.3 of the agreement mandates a review of the TEPA two years after it comes into force. After the first review, the two parties, the EFTA and India, would conduct biennial reviews as “considered mutually appropriate”.
The agreement will come into force on the first day of the third month, after India and the EFTA countries have deposited their instruments of ratification, approval or acceptance to the depository country.
The two parties have agreed that Norway will be the depository country.
As ThePrint reported earlier, the agreement’s intellectual property chapters have raised alarm among several organisations working to promote access to life-saving drugs.
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