India-SACU Preferential Trade Agreement to be finalised soon: Sharma

South African President Jacob Zuma opening “The India Show” in Johannesburg, on August 30, 2010. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and his South African counterpart Rob Davies are also seen.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma met his South African counterpart Rob Davies in Johannesburg yesterday and said the India-Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) would be finalised soon.

Mr Sharma said officials from India and SACU would meet in the first week of October to discuss pending issues relating to the agreement.

While highlighting the historical, political and economic relations between the two countries, the Ministers agreed that a PTA would be of mutual benefit to both sides in the long term. They agreed that there were many areas where there was complementarity of interests of both the countries and the PTA would further enhance the same.

According to an official press release here today, Mr Sharma also met South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Minister of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan, among others.

He also inaugurated a conference on "Doing Business with India" along with Mr. Davies.

He will be traveling to Durban as part of "The India Show" to mark the 150 years of the first arrival of Indians in South Africa. The Minister is in South Africa in connection with "The India Show", which was inaugurated by South African President Jacob Zuma yesterday.

Mr Sharma said he was optimistic that, given the current trend of growth in bilateral trade between India and South Africa, the target of $10 billion set for 2012 could be achieved in 2011 itself.

He said that, as India-South Africa trade expands, both countries will benefit by generating employment and other opportunities for the people of the two countries. He expressed satisfaction that the strategic partnership between India and South Africa had now matured into a dynamic and multi-faceted relationship encompassing virtually all areas of human endeavor.

The Minister recalled that the two countries had priority areas of bilateral cooperation such as infrastructure and manufacturing, mines and minerals, energy, banking and financial services, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, information technology, automobiles and auto-components.

Reiterating its earlier stand explained in the June 4, 2010 bilateral between the Trade Ministers, the Indian side expressed its keenness to have an agreement on Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) at the earliest. It was decided that this issue of BIPPA would also be discussed in the senior officials meetings slated in the first week of October 2010.

Mr Sharma mentioned that the state visit of President Zuma in June this year was a great success and a milestone in the bilateral partnership. The understandings reached during his visit have elevated the relationship between the two countries to a phase of increased intensity and closeness, he added.

NNN