Jaipur: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has expressed the desire to “quickly” get back on the negotiating table to discuss a potential trade agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
Last year, both the regions agreed to pursue an FTA and resume the negotiations. GCC is a union of six countries in the Gulf region — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain.
“We have large investments coming from GCC countries. We already have a FTA with UAE The GCC countries led by Saudi Arabia have expressed the desire to quickly get back on the negotiating table to discuss potential agreements with the GCC countries.
Many GCC member nations have also approached India individually with the request to enter into a bilateral agreement,” he told reporters here.
The minister is here for the G20 trade and investment ministerial meeting. Among the economic regions, GCC is the top source of imports. Imports from GCC countries were $133 billion in 2022-23, up 20.3 per cent on year while exports were 16.7 per cent higher at $51.3 billion. India’s exports to the GCC member countries grew by 58.26 per cent to about $44 billion in 2021-22 against $27.8 billion in 2020-21.
Bilateral trade in goods has increased to $154.73 billion in 2021-22 from $87.4 billion in 2020-21. Services trade between the two regions was valued at around $14 billion in 2021-22, with exports aggregated at $5.5 billion and imports at
$8.3 billion.