Peru's Foreign Trade and Tourism Ministry (Mincetur) on Friday announced the third
between Peru and India —towards reaching a trade agreement— has concluded.
The meetings took place on December 4-7 in New Delhi.
Delegations from both countries addressed markets access, customs procedures and trade facilitation, services trade, investments, movement of people, among others.
"In this round, we have made significant progress concerning customs, cooperation, and technical obstacles for trade," Peru's Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Edgar Vasquez expressed.
"Both nations have reaffirmed their interest in intensifying talks in order to reach a trade agreement soon, which will benefit us," he added.
The official pointed out Peru is the first Latin American economy that has begun FTA discussions with India.
It will cover not only services trade but also movement of people and investment.
"We have agreed to hold another
negotiation round in the first quarter of 2019 in Lima to continue bringing our positions closer and gain access to this
market of over 1.2 billion inhabitants," the Mincetur representative said.
At present, India has only entered into partial-scope trade agreements —merely involving goods— with Chile and Southern Common Market (Mercosur) members.
It should be noted said nation is the third-major Asian economy, after China and Japan, and the seventh in the world.
Furthermore, in the last five years, India's economy has expanded 7.1% per year. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it may increase by 7.3% in 2018, and 7.5% in 2019-2020.
(END) CNA/DTK/MVB