Русский
The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and India have held the first round of negotiations on a free trade agreement this week in New Delhi, according to Russia’s Economic Development Ministry.
The EAEU includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia and has a collective GDP (PPP) of about US$8.5 trillion. The EAEU’s GDP per capita (PPP) is approximately US$44,888, with a population of 185.5 million.
India is notoriously difficult when it comes to negotiating trade agreements, as it is highly protective of its own markets. However, this is unlikely to be a major barrier to an agreement with the EAEU as EAEU member states are unlikely to significantly compete with Indian domestic companies in the Indian market. The timing of the negotiations is of note as it provides India with positive news it can present to the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who visits Delhi later this week.
The FTA negotiations include resolving issues related to customs administration, as well as applying sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical regulations in addition to tariff liberalization. Russia and India also addressed competition, intellectual property protection, e-commerce, and the further development of cooperation in various economic sectors.
Russia’s Deputy Economic Development Minister, Vladimir Ilychev said “Russia is interested in expanding trade and economic cooperation with India. It is the world’s largest country by population and Russia’s third-largest trading partner. The agreement should provide preferential access for Russian economic operators to a market with 1.5 billion people, and the elimination of prohibitive tariffs on the Indian market, which can exceed 100%, and should facilitate the diversification of Russian exports.”
The India-EAEU agreement can be expected to be similar to the recent EAEU FTA agreed with Iran. Details of that, which reduced import tariffs on 87% of all traded goods and can be seen here. Since that agreement came into effect, Russia-Iran bilateral trade increased by 35%. A final agreement between India and the EAEU may however be two-three years away, but at least the process has now formally begun.
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Further Reading
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