A joint press conference on November 25 in New Delhi to announce their intentions of His Excellency Dr. Nayef Falah M. Al-Hajraf, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, and Textiles, Government of India to proceed with negotiations on the India-GCC FTA.

In all areas of mutual interest throughout the whole spectrum of bilateral economic relations between India and the GCC countries, bilateral dialogues showed tremendous development with forward-looking and solution-oriented discussions.

It may be noted that the GCC is currently India’s largest trading partner bloc with bilateral trade in FY 2021-22 valued at over USD 154 billion with exports valued at approximately USD 44 billion and imports of around USD 110 billion (non-oil exports of USD 33.8 Billion and non-oil imports of USD 37.2 Billion). Bilateral trade in services between India and the GCC was valued at around USD 14 billion in FY 2021-22, with exports valued at USD 5.5 Billion and imports at USD 8.3 Billion. 

GCC countries contribute almost 35% of India’s oil imports and 70% of gas imports. India’s overall crude oil imports from the GCC in 2021-22 were about $48 billion, while LNG and LPG imports in 2021-22 were about $21 billion. Investments from the GCC in India are currently valued at over USD 18 billion.

The FTA is envisioned to be an attempting to cut, all-encompassing Agreement with excellent coverage of products and services. Both parties agreed that the legal and technical requirements must be completed quickly in order to formally resume the FTA negotiations. Both parties decided to significantly broaden and diversify their commerce in order to take advantage of the great potential offered by the complementing business and economic ecosystems of India.
(Source: PIB)