Andina

Peru, India end 2nd FTA negotiation round

15:30 | Lima, Apr. 13.

The Governments of Peru and India have completed the second round of negotiations towards a trade agreement, the Inca country's Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Rogers Valencia underlined Friday.

Held from April 9 to 12 in Lima, the meetings were attended by delegations from both countries, which were divided into nine working groups on market access (tariffs), trade defense, services, investment, and cooperation, among others.

For his part, Valencia described the meetings as highly important since they helped define both nations' interests in specific topics.

"For instance —in the field of access to goods markets and in the case of services— each country has identified specific service sectors to increase trade," the government official explained. 

In addition to reducing tariff barriers, he said, the deal is expected to speed up sanitary procedures and make them more transparent. Plus, it seeks to promote Peru's services exports, attract Indian investment to Peru, and ease the movement of professionals and technicians between these countries. 

"This trade agreement is expected to remove barriers for Peruvian exports to India," Valencia expressed.   

He went on to say India is a market of more than 1.2 billion people —of which almost one third are potential consumers of Peruvian products.

Third round

It must be noted the third negotiation round is scheduled for the second half of 2018. 

As is known, the first one took place in New Delhi (India) in August 2017.  

Translated by: Heriane Martinez

(END) MMG/FGM/HMC/MVB

Published: 4/13/2018