India and Israel agreed on Thursday to resume talks on a long-discussed free trade agreement, officials said.
“Along with Nir Barkat, Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry, I today signed the Terms of Reference (TOR) to guide negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Israel,” Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Twitter.
“This is an important first step towards facilitating negotiations to conclude a balanced, comprehensive and mutually beneficial FTA to strengthen and enhance our trade, economic and strategic partnership,” Goyal said after a bilateral meeting in Tel Aviv.
“Our joint objective is to diversify and enhance bilateral trade, create a larger market by identifying new areas of cooperation while addressing sensitivities in different sectors,” he said.
The signed framework, which will form the basis of negotiations, includes market access for goods by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, investment facilitation, simplification of customs procedures, enhanced cooperation for innovation and technology transfer and easing of norms to promote trade in services.
Earlier, both the countries were engaged in talks on a similar agreement and eight rounds of talks were held.
India-Israel bilateral trade so far
According to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India is Israel’s second largest trade partner in Asia and seventh largest trade partner globally.
Trade between the two countries has boomed since diplomatic relations were established in 1992, growing from around $200 million (€173 million) to a peak of $10.77 billion in 2022–23, mainly driven by diamonds.
But it has fallen by two-thirds from that peak – a decline that officials say is due to regional security tensions and disruptions to shipping routes.
Edited by: Shawn Sinico