India and Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) on Tuesday agreed to move towards starting negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Customs Union (CU).
The Customs Union comprises of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.
In a bilateral meeting with Viktor Khristenko, Chairperson of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles Anand Sharma said, the Customs Union is an important block in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from the point of view of the India-CIS trade.
“India is of the view that the need for CECA with the CU is a well-established concept. We have expressed our desire to begin the negotiations for it,” said Sharma.
The need for a CECA with Russia and CU has been recognised since 2006-07 and the same has been voiced during different bilateral meetings held in the past with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Sharma also conveyed to Khristenko the idea for the establishment of a Joint Study Group (JSG) for CECA between India and the CU. Both sides agreed to discuss the terms of reference for the JSG, composition of JSG and fixing the time frames for the submission of the JSG report in June 2013 when Commerce, Industry & Textiles minister visits St. Petersburg for the International Economic Forum.
India’s total trade with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan was $6.547 billion in 2011, which jumped to $7.433 billion in 2012.
