GCC-India talks on FTA progressing fast: Minister

India’s discussions for concluding a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the GCC are “progressing fast,” the Minister for Commerce, Industry and Consumer Affairs, Piyush Goyal, said on Sunday.

Addressing a large cross-section of India’s business through the platform of the Jain International Trade Organisation, Goyal specifically cited the UAE as among the countries with which his Ministry is engaged in talks towards reaching an FTA.

Outside the GCC, India is conducting FTA-related talks with the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union.

The pace of discussions have now gathered speed, Goyal said. Traders and exporters are the “twin pistons powering the economic growth engine of India. We firmly believe in the capabilities of the business community as well as of start-ups.” The FTAs will enable India to become a global “trading hub,” Goyal hoped.

The Jain International Trade Organisation is conducting a 12-day virtual expo with the participation of several thousand businesses and entrepreneurs.

India attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of $22.53 billion during the first three months of the fiscal year starting on April 1, 90% higher than the April-June period last year, the government said recently. India’s automobile industry accounted for 27% of the total FDI equity inflow, emerging as the brightest sector in Asia’s third-largest economy, followed by computer software and hardware and the services sectors which accounted for 17% and 11% of the inflows respectively, the trade ministry said in a statement.