India, Chile expand preferential trade agreement: Com Min

With India and Chile expanding preferential trade agreement, the South American nation has offered duty concessions on as many as 1,798 goods to Indian exporters compared to 178 items earlier.
On the other hand, India has offered concessions to Chile on 1,031 products as against 296 earlier.
The development would help both the countries boost their bilateral trade from the level of USD 2.64 billion in 2015-16.
An agreement on the expansion of India-Chile preferential trade agreement (PTA) was signed between the countries in a meeting held between Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia and Andres Barbe Gonzalez, Ambassador, Embassy of Chile today.

"Under the expanded PTA, Chile has offered concessions to India on 1,798 tariff lines (products) with margin of preference (MoP) ranging from 30 per cent - 100 per cent and India has offered concessions to Chile on 1,031 tariff lines at 8-digit level with MoP ranging from 10 - 100 per cent," the commerce ministry said in a statement.
India's export to Chile consists of transport equipment, pharmaceuticals, yarn of polyester fibres, tyres and tubes, chemicals, textiles, readymade garments, plastic goods, leather, engineering goods, imitation jewellery, sports goods and handicrafts.

Major items of import are copper ore, iodine, copper cathodes, molybdenum ores, lithium carbonates, metal scrap, chemicals, pulp and waste paper, fruits and nuts, fertilizers and machinery.

"India's export basket with Chile is diversified and keeping in view the wide variety of tariff lines offered by Chile, the expanded PTA would immensely benefit India," it said.
A PTA between India and Chile was earlier signed on March 8, 2006, and came into force from August 2007.
It further said that Chile has been cooperating with India at the international fora and expansion of India Chile PTA will enhance the trade and economic relations between the two countries.
"The expansion would be an important landmark in India- Chile relations and consolidate the traditional fraternal relations that have existed between India and LAC countries (Latin American and Caribbean countries)," it added.

In April, the government had approved expansion of the Preferential Trade Agreement with Chile.
It had said that the expansion of PTA is likely to result in doubling of our exports in the near future.
In the original PTA concluded in March 2006, India had offered 178 tariff lines with the MoP ranging from 10-50 per cent at 8-digit level and Chile's offer list consisted of 296 tariff lines with MoP ranging from 10-100 per cent at 8-digit level.