Chile to deepen preferential trade agreement with India

Chile aims to deepen the preferential trade agreements with India to boost bilateral trade between the two countries, the country's ambassador Alfonso S Navarro said here today.      

"Our target is to sign a Free Trade Agreement with India for which both the countries have first decided to deepen and widen the existing Partial Trade Agreements (PTA) we had already signed," Navarro said on the sidelines on an interactive session with members of Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry Navarro.      

He said a meeting is slated between officials of both countries to discuss additional products that could be included in the existing list.      

"There had been some delay due to the elections, but we hope to hold a meeting by August to enhance the list and reduce the tariffs. These steps would help to reach the final FTA," he added.      

There are 144 products which are included in the PTA agreement signed in 2005 for which 2008 was the first year of implementation.      Navarro said in 2007-08 the total bilateral trade was around $2 billion out of which $1.8 billion was export to India.      

He said once the FTA agreement was signed there would be opportunity to India to increase its exports to the country.