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Confederation of Indian Industry urges to finalize FTA deal with Eurasian Economic Union

According to the CII, several important steps should be taken to intensify the bilateral trade

NEW-DELHI, May 17. /TASS/. India and Russia should speed up finalizing the free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said in an exclusive interview with TASS.

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"India and Russia should take the lead in finalizing India-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In the past one year, significant progress has been made with both sides having accepted the reports submitted by Joint Feasibility Study Group (JFSG) in January 2017. In fact it’s pertinent to note that JFSG was set up in SPIEF 2015 (St. Petersburg International Economic Forum - TASS). Now time is ripe to start the negotiations and conclude the agreement by 2018," Banerjee said.

According to the CII, several important steps should be taken to intensify the bilateral trade, he noted.

In particular, "the Green Corridor project between India and Russia is a step forward to facilitate trade and to step up proper trade infrastructure between the two countries," he said.

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"However, full implementation of the Green Corridor project is required to be expedited and similar facilitation mechanism should be extended to the Indian-Eurasian economic zone as well," Banerjee said.

"India and Russia should leverage their leadership position in the region to establish International North South Transit Corridor (INSTC). This multimodal transportation route connecting the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea via Iran, and onward to northern Europe," the CII General Director said.

He added that Russia and India should also more intensively promote cooperation on the level of regions.

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