Outline agreement on trade agreement with India
Published: Sunday, Jan 21st 2024, 01:20
Updated At: Sunday, Jan 21st 2024, 01:21
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Almost 16 years after the start of negotiations on the free trade agreement between the EFTA states and India, a basic agreement has been reached. This was announced by Economics Minister Guy Parmelin on the online platform X on Saturday evening.
Parmelin traveled to Mumbai in India at the last-minute invitation of his counterpart Piyush Goyal, the Federal Council also announced. The Minister of Economic Affairs did not specify what the states had agreed on in his statement.
An agreement with India should create jobs for India's young population and secure Switzerland as a business location, Parmelin said in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung newspaper published on Sunday. For Swiss companies, universal market access is vital.
A free trade agreement would also facilitate better access to environmentally friendly technologies and promote investment. "India's poor will also benefit from this," said Parmelin in response to the objection raised by development organizations in the newspaper, according to which India is a very poor country despite high growth rates.
Negotiations since 2008
Parmelin heads the delegation of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In addition to Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are also members.
He already met Goyal last May. At the time, it was said that the meeting was a positive step towards advancing negotiations on a free trade agreement. The EFTA states and India have been negotiating an agreement since 2008.
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