Post BRICS: Modi holds bilateral meet with Brazilian President

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met Brazilian President Michel Termer in Goa's Salcete city for a bilateral meet aiming to bolster trade related ties between the two nations.

Termer through his official Twitter account, on Sunday, said the trade between Brazil and India can triple in a few years.

"With agreements, trade between Brazil and India can triple in a few years," Temer tweeted after arriving in Goa.

"My idea is to increase Brazil's relationship with India," he said on Twitter, noting that at present a few renowned Brazilian companies have presence in India.

India and Brazil share a very close and multifaceted relationship at bilateral as well as multilateral fora such as IBSA, BRICS, BASIC, G-20, G-4 or the larger multilateral arena such as the UN, WTO, UNESCO, WIPO etc.

Bilateral relations between India and Brazil have acquired the dimension of a strategic partnership in the last decade.

Brazil is one of the most important trading partners of India in the entire LAC (Latin America and Caribbean) region. India-Brazil bilateral trade has increased substantially in the last two decades. However, the global drop in commodity prices and the economic recession in Brazil in 2015 affected Brazil's overall trade. Evidently, some negative impact was felt in the India-Brazil bilateral trade as well.

Indian exports to Brazil stood at $4.29 billion in 2015 as compared to $6.63 billion in 2014 and $6.36 billion in 2013.

Indian imports from Brazil stood at $3.62 billion compared to $4.789 billion in 2014 and $3.13 billion in 2013. Thus the overall bilateral trade was at $ 7.9 billion, decreasing 30.7 per cent from $11.424 billion in 2014.

About 39 per cent of Indian exports were value added petroleum products such as diesel. The other prominent export items from India were organic chemicals and pharmaceutical products valued at $730 Million. Boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances were other major items in India's export basket. The other important export items included textile products (cotton, apparels, accessories etc.) which amounted to $150 million.