The government has approved expansion of the Preferential Trade Agreement with Chile, a move that will help in doubling of exports to the Latin American nation in future.
The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today gave its approval to expansion of India-Chile Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), an official statement said.
"India's export basket with Chile is diversified and keeping in view the wide variety of tariff lines offered by Chile, the expanded PTA would immensely benefit India," it added.
"Under the proposed expanded PTA, 86 per cent of India's exports to Chile will get covered with concessions, which is likely to result in doubling of our exports in the near future."
Under the expanded PTA, Chile has offered concessions to India on 1,798 tariff lines with Margin of Preference (MoP) ranging from 30-100 per cent, with India reciprocating on 1,031 tariff lines with MoP at 10-100 per cent.
A PTA between India and Chile was signed in March 2006 and came into effect from August 2007. In 2006-07, Chile was ranked 51st export destination for India.
Bilateral trade during 2006-07 stood at USD 2.3 billion. The dynamics changed after the PTA came into force from September 2007, pushing up the growth figure to 58.5 per cent between 2006-07 to 2014-15.
During 2014-15, the trade came in at USD 3.65 billion, with exports at USD 0.57 billion and imports at USD 3.08 billion, respectively.
Chile has been cooperating with India at various global fora and expansion of Indo-Chile PTA will enhance the trade and economic relations between the two countries, the statement said.
