India and Peru have achieved substantial convergence in the text of the trade agreement during the 7th round of negotiations that concluded here on Thursday where detailed discussions were held between both parties.
Delegations from both countries held extensive discussions on 13 key policy areas that will form the substantive part of the trade agreement between the two countries.“Discussions encompassed across the chapters or policy areas which included trade in goods and services, movement of natural persons, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, custom procedures and trade facilitation, initial provisions and general definitions, legal and institutional provisions, final provisions, trade remedies, general and security exceptions, dispute settlement and cooperation,” a statement issued here said.The seventh round of negotiations were held in New Delhi between April 8-11.
“The discussions involved understanding priorities and concerns of each other.” India and Peru are keen to speed up the negotiations. The 7th round of talks happened within two months of the 6th round that was held in Lima, Peru.The next round of negotiations are expected in June. These will be preceded by intersessional negotiations over video conferencing to ensure that outstanding issues are resolved before the two parties meet again, the statement added.Negotiations for the India-Peru Trade Agreement had commenced in the year 2017 and the fifth round was concluded in August, 2019.
On account of Covid, the negotiations came to a pause. The decision to resume negotiations was taken when vice minister of foreign trade of Peru Teresa Mera Gomez met the commerce and industry minister in August in New Delhi on the sidelines of CII India-LAC Conclave. The sixth round was held in February this year and on Thursday the 7th round was completed.Around sixty delegates together from both sides participated in the negotiations in the 7th round. The Peruvian delegation consisted of representatives from the ministry of foreign trade & tourism and the ministry of foreign affairs of Peru.
The Indian delegates comprised the officials from the Department of Commerce, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Department of Revenue, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and the legal and economic resource persons. Peru has emerged as the third-largest trading partner of India in Latin American and Caribbean Region. In the last two decades, the trade between India and Peru has increased from $66 million in 2003 to around $3.68 billion in 2023.
