India, Brazil to sign bilateral investment-facilitation pact
14 Oct 2016
India and Brazil will be signing a bilateral investment facilitation agreement on the sidelines of the BRICS trade ministers meet at Goa, Marcos Pereira, Brazilian minister of industry, foreign trade and services, announced the decision after a meeting with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on Thursday.
Pereira said the Investment Facilitation Treaty is the first with an Asian country and he expressed pleasure that it is happening with India.
Both ministers recollected that the fourth meeting of the India-Brazil Trade Monitoring Mechanism and the third meeting of Joint Administrative Committee of India-MERCOSUR PTA held in Brazil during 29-30 September, 2016 have been successful.
They also expressed the need to strengthen the India-MERCOSUR PTA and expand the items on offer from both sides to at least 2,500 from the current 450 as this would greatly benefit the two way trade and need to have close cooperation between India, Brazil and other MERCOSUR partners so as to ensure that the expansion process does not spill over beyond end of next year.
During the discussions, Marcos Pereira dwelt at length on the reforms being taken up by the present Brazilian government in improving the business environment, economic growth and the legislations being embarked upon to bring about labour reforms, social security arrangements besides control of public expenditure.
Sitharaman mentioned the improvement in ease of doing business in India and influx of huge amount of FDI into India, since the present government came to power while underlining that the investment from Brazil has been modest and below potential, thereby emphasizing that both countries take measures to enhance two way investment.
She mentioned that India felt the absence of Brazil in the Sixth India-LAC conclave organised by India during 8-9 October 2015 in New Delhi and suggested Brazilian minister to host similar conclaves in Brazil so as to establish long term economic partnerships and foster south-south cooperation.
She also suggested the formation of a joint working group on trade promotion to ensure smooth conduct and success of such events which the Brazilian side welcomed.
The commerce minister thanked Brazil for its initiative and cooperation for holding constructive deliberations on MSME, services, standardisation, IPR and single window mechanism during BRICS summit.
