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India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are anticipated to launch negotiations for a free commerce settlement on November 24 with an purpose to spice up financial ties between the 2 areas, an official mentioned.

GCC is a union of six international locations within the Gulf area— Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain.

“The FTA can be launched on November 24. GCC officers can be right here to launch the talks,” the official mentioned.

India has already applied a free commerce pact with the U.A.E. in Might this 12 months.

Commerce and trade minister Piyush Goyal had, on November 16, mentioned that India can be launching a brand new free commerce settlement (FTA) subsequent week.

This may be a form of resumption of FTA talks as earlier two rounds of negotiations held in 2006 and 2008 between India and GCC. The third spherical didn’t occur as GCC deferred its negotiations with all international locations and financial teams.

India imports predominately crude oil and pure fuel from the Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and exports pearls, valuable and semi-precious stones; metals; imitation jewelry; electrical equipment; iron and metal; and chemical substances to those international locations.

India’s exports to the GCC grew by 58.26% to about $44 billion in 2021-22 in opposition to $27.8 billion in 2020-21, in accordance with information from the commerce ministry.

The share of those six international locations in India’s complete exports has risen to 10.4% in 2021-22 from 9.51% in 2020-21. Equally, imports rose by 85.8% to $110.73 billion in comparison with $59.6 billion in 2020-21, the information confirmed.

The share of GCC members in India’s complete imports rose to 18% in 2021-22 from 15.5% in 2020-21.

Bilateral commerce has elevated to $154.73 billion in 2021-22 from $87.4 billion in 2020-21.

In addition to commerce, Gulf nations are host to a sizeable Indian inhabitants. Out of about 32 million non-resident Indians (NRIs), almost half are estimated to be working in Gulf international locations.

These NRIs ship a major sum of money again dwelling.

In response to a November 2021 report from the World Financial institution, India acquired $87 billion in overseas remittances in 2021. Of this, a sizeable portion got here from the GCC nations.

Saudi Arabia was India’s fourth-largest buying and selling companion final fiscal. From Qatar, India imports 8.5 million tonnes a 12 months of LNG and exports merchandise starting from cereals to meat, fish, chemical substances and plastics.

Kuwait was the twenty seventh largest buying and selling companion of India within the final fiscal, whereas the U.A.E. was the third-largest buying and selling companion in 2021-22.