‘India & EEU bloc finalising broad contours & ToR on proposed FTA’

New Delhi: India and the five-nation Eurasian Economic Union bloc are working to finalise broad contours and their terms of reference on a proposed free trade agreement (FTA), an official said.

The five members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce Anant Swarup said that on the EEU proposed FTA, chief negotiators of both sides have already met and broad contours are being finalised. “Scope and the ToR (terms of reference) of the proposed free trade agreement are under stakeholder consultation internally in India and same with Russia and soon it will be exchanged so that the next steps can take place,” he told reporters here.

On the timeline for both sides to formally launch negotiations for the pact, he said that unless there is an understanding on the ToR, the launch date is premature to be decided.

In such agreements, two or more trading partners either eliminate or significantly reduce customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. These agreements provide greater market access to Indian goods and services.

Russia is the top trading partner of India in the bloc, with bilateral trade worth $65.7 billion in 2022-23. India’s exports to Russia stood at $4.26 billion in 2023-24, while imports were $61.43 billion due to an increase in crude oil imports.

The bilateral trade with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan was $131.38 million, $59 million, $331.7 million, and $55 million, respectively, in the last fiscal.

Meanwhile, India is focussing on various sectors like electronics, besides taking up issues of non-trade barriers removal, to boost exports to sanction-hit Russia and move towards achieving the $100 billion annual bilateral trade target, a senior government official

said.