India, Israel FTA in February 2011

Nov 27, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

India and Israel hope to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) in February 2011 on the occasion of Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz’s visit here, at the invitation of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Mr Mukherjee met with his Israeli counterpart in the US in October, on the sidelines of a meeting of the IMF and World Bank.
Israel worries about its market becoming swamped with cheaper goods from India but the unresponsiveness of the markets in the West, primarily on account of the global economic downturn, has acted as a catalyst in the FTA negotiations. After the signing of FTA, bilateral trade is expected to triple from the $4 billion in 2008 to over $12 billion. India has jumped from the eighth position to second as the favoured destination for Israeli exports in the first half of 2010, according to Israel’s export and international cooperation institute. Israeli exports to India in the first-half of this year were worth $990 million, an increase of 102 per cent compared to 2009. Israel has signed FTAs with US, Turkey and many others.

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