"The start of procedures toward a free-trade agreement with India is a breakthrough in commercial relations between the two countries," Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Indian Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia yesterday.
Scindia also met President Shimon Peres, and lauded Israel's high-tech industry, calling it "the second Silicon Valley".
Scindia informed Ben-Eliezer that India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accepted an Israeli proposal to begin negotiations on a free-trade agreement. In May 2007, Israel formally asked India to open talks on the subject. The two countries will now begin negotiations on a free-trade agreement.
Ben-Eliezer said, "Reaching a free-trade agreement between Israel and India will underpin bilateral trade relations, and is expected to give them a major boost."
The Ministry of Industry's Foreign Trade Administration expects a joint India-Israel economics committee to be set up by mid-year to reach additional agreements for facilitating the activities of Israeli companies in India.
The ministry says that India is Israel's tenth largest trading partner. Israel-India trade, including diamonds, totaled $3 billion in 2009, 25% less than in 2008. However, bilateral trade excluding diamonds rose by 14% to $1.77 billion. Israeli exports of goods to India fell 10% to $1.21 billion in 2009, while imports from India fell 26% to $558 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 18, 2010
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