Our Bureau

New Delhi , March 17

THE Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the signing of five `Annexes' of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with MERCOSUR, a trading bloc in Latin America.

The signing of the annexes would pave the way to implement the PTA, which is the first step towards negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA).

The Union Cabinet has authorised the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, to sign the Annexes on March 19, after the conclusion of the G-20 meeting at New Delhi. G-20 was a grouping of developing countries that came together pre-Cancun WTO Ministerial, in order to safeguard their agricultural interests.

MERCOSUR comprises Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. It has Chile and Bolivia as its associate members. MERCOSUR was formed in 1991 with the objective of facilitating the free movement of goods, services, capital and people among the four member countries. It became a Customs Union in 1995.

This trading block has become a successful market of about 200 million people, representing about $1 trillion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and $190 billion of trade. It is the fourth largest integrated market after the European Union (EU), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and ASEAN.

India had a total trade of $1.42 billion with MERCOSUR during 2003-2004. Indian exports to MERCOSUR were approximately $0,57 billion during 2003-04 and imports from MERCOSUR stood at $0.85 billion in the same period.

India's share is currently 0.83 per cent of the global imports of MERCOSUR. The major items of exports from India to MERCOSUR are drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, transport equipment, inorganic/ organic / agro chemicals, cotton yarn and cotton and manmade fabrics, made-ups, readymade garments, dyes, intermediates and coal tar. The major items of imports into India from MERCOSUR are edible oils (primarily soya), metalliferous ores, metal scrap and non-electrical machinery.

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