New Delhi, Jan 11 (FN Bureau) India and Korea on Tuesday set a trade target of USD 50 billion before 2030 and agreed to impart fresh momentum to the negotiations on up-gradation of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement as Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea Yeo Han-Koo look at enhancing bilateral trade in a fair and balanced manner to the mutual advantage of both sides. The bilateral trade in the first half of 2021 (January to June) was recorded at $10.97 bn which is an increase of 38% compared to the same period of the previous year.
“Delighted to host Mr Yeo Han-koo to discuss ways to strengthen the India-Korea economic relationship. Discussed key issues related to bilateral trade & investments, reviewed progress on CEPA upgradation & deliberated on ways to fast-track trade negotiations,” Goyal said in a tweet. During wide-ranging discussions, Goyal and the Korean Minister who is on an official visit to India at the former’s invitation, instructed the respective negotiating teams to meet on a regular basis in order to conclude the CEPA up-gradation negotiations as soon as possible. This would be done in a time bound manner building upon support from relevant stakeholders, so as to try to achieve the target of USD 50 bn before 2030 as agreed at the summit meeting in 2018. The two sides agreed on promotion of extensive interactions on trade and investment between industry leaders of the two countries to address the large trade deficit, market access issues and non-tariff barriers faced by Indian exporters.
The proposed regular negotiations on CEPA shall be a forum to discuss the difficulties of business community from both countries and emerging trade-related issues including supply chain resilience. India-South Korea relations have made impressive headway in recent years with bilateral cooperation covering a wide range of sectors including energy, electronics, shipbuilding, information technology, cybersecurity. As per the Ministry of External Affairs, trade and economic relations between the two countries have gathered momentum following the implementation of CEPA in 2010. For the past three years -2017, 2018 and 2019, the bilateral trade volume has constantly crossed USD 20 billion. According to a December 2021 report by Dezan Shira & Associates, South Korea is the 13th largest foreign direct investment (FDI) source in India, investing US $4.97 bn between April 2000 to June 2021 led by companies like Tata Daewoo, Ssangyong, and Novelis.