Iran, India to Open Up Channel for PTA: Indian Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran and India plans to open up a channel for exchange of information in a bid to start Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), the Indian minister of commerce and industry said.
"In the second meeting of the Joint Working Group held on 18-19 November, both sides (Iran and India) agreed to open up a channel for exchange of information, etc for this purpose (PTA)," India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's Bicameral Parliament, NDTV reported.
She said that in the first meeting of the two countries' Joint Working Group on trade and commerce, which was held in April in Tehran, both sides agreed to examine the scope and the feasibility of entering into a preferential trade agreement.
The minister also said that the rupee payment arrangement with Iran is in place to ease payment in respect of imports of oil and facilitate payment to exporters in rupees.
In a PTA, two trading partners reduce or eliminate duties on selected products to boost trade and investments. The bilateral trade between the two nations stood at over $13.13 billion in 2014-15.
