India, China Set up Hotline (February 06, 2007)
When Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing visits India next week, India and China have decided to set up a hotline between their foreign ministers as part of a roadmap to implement the 10-point action plan to boost strategic cooperation.<More>

Indo-Australia Trade Prospects (January 30 , 2007)
In an interview with Deccan Herald, Australian Trade Commissioner for South Asia Michael Moignard advocated increased trade and value addition from Australia to boost bilateral trade levels from USD 8.6 billion.<More>

“Red Tapism” Slowing Indo-UK Trade (January 25, 2007)
Chairman of the Indo-British Partnership Network (IBPN) Lord Karan Bilimoria said in an interview with the Times of India that although “reduced to a great extent,” the biggest bottleneck to further bilateral trade is “Red tapism.”<More>

Pak Hurdles on SAFTA (January 25, 2007)
Hailing Afghanistan’s entry into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), an Indian official complained about Pakistan’s refusal to implement South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) which impeded regional trade.<More>

Over 200m Jobs by 2020: Brown (January 22, 2007)
British Prime Minister in waiting and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said that India is set to create 25% of extra jobs or an estimated 200 million jobs by 2020 which will be more than the numbers created in the US, Europe, and China put together.<More>

Need to Resuscitate Doha Round  (January 20, 2007)
“Confident that India will make a constructive contribution to the last laps,” World Trade Organization (WTO) Chief Pascal Lamy warned that the “window of opportunity” will “close sometime this year.”<More>

Indo-Russia Trade Needs Addressing (January 18, 2007)
Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit later in January, Indian industry leaders want a permanent vehicle to discuss and manage non-tariff barriers and developing reliable trade routes is created.<More>

China Tries to Curb Export Growth (January 18, 2007)
Aiming to better strained relationship with the US and the EU over out-of-control trade surplus, Beijing is trying to adopt new polices to cut its export growth to avoid a potentially disastrous “political” problem.<More>

2006 Exports Topped Expectations (January 11, 2007)
Indian exports achieved a key milestone when it crossed the psychological barrier of USD 100 billion in 2006 with a growth rate of 24% and over 13% of total gross domestic product (GDP) valued at USD 800 billion compared to 6% in 1990-91.<More>

Manmohan’s Japan Visit (December 18, 2006)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Japan where he invited greater investment from Japan under a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and also requested Tokyo’s support for the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).<More>

Global Trust Deficit on China FDI (December 14, 2006)
As China’s major allies in India, the Communist Party (M) of India (CPM) seem to have given up their campaign to gain economic access for Beijing, there is increasing evidence that India has many economic reasons not trust China yet.<More>

Impact of China-Pak FTA (December 07, 2006)
A closer look at the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) to targeted at specific products for trade and opening avenues to liberalize services shows that this deal may not affect Indian businesses or trade with China or Pakistan.<More>

India, EU Talk FTA (December 06, 2006)
India and the European Union (EU) have signed a “Joint Feasibility Study” to pave way for a regional and bilateral free trade agreement even as officials acknowledge that a multilateral trade agreement is preferable.<More>

GSP Retaliation for WTO Negotiations (November 30, 2006)
Even though there has been an overwhelming support for the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal among US policy makers, India is nervous about how they will deal with the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) mechanism set to expire next month.<More>

Global Trade Progress to Continue (November 20, 2006)
Despite losses in elections, President George Bush reassured Asian allies that his nation is still committed to global trade liberalization and promised to “remain engaged in Asia because our interests depend on the expansion of freedom and opportunity in this region."<More>

Indo-Sino Investment Treaty (November 17, 2006)
The Indian Cabinet has approved Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sign an investment promotion and protection agreement with China during its President Hu Jintao’s visits India later this month and is expected to widen Chinese investment prospects.<More>

Malaysia Invites Indian Investment (November 10, 2006)
Malaysia inaugurated a representative office of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in Bangalore and invited further Indian investments to the 15 kilometer (km) wide and 50 km long special corridor dedicated to multimedia.<More>

Hu’s Visit Aimed at Building Trust (November 09, 2006)
Ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India from November 20-23, both nations are building up the tempo through orchestrated sound-bites focusing on the positives and not referring to the disagreements plaguing bilateral relations.<More>

India Asks Pak to Stop Stalling SAFTA (November 09, 2006)
Setting the tone for upcoming Foreign Secretary level talks, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked Pakistan to remove “obstructions” and allow “free flow of trade” and go beyond the expanded trade basket.<More>

Indo-Sri Lanka Trade Looking at USD 3B (October 05, 2006)
From a mere USD 650 million in 2000, the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is set to take bilateral trade to USD 3 billion next calendar year despite unethical business practices not-conducive to business by the Sri Lankan Government (SLG).<More>

IBSA Sets Goals (September 19, 2006)
With the end of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) first summit in Brazil , the world’s largest democracies in developing countries set common goals in the world’s political, economic, and social forums and promised better calibration of policy making..<More>

Indo-US Trade Set to Exceed 2005 Level (September 14, 2006)
Indo-US bilateral trade during January-May 2006 has grown substantially with 23.3% increase in imports and 19% increase in exports totaling USD 12 billion and set to pass last year’s level of USD 26.8 billion (previous year’s level was USD 21.6 billion).<More>

Increase in Import of “Sensitive” Items (September 12, 2006)
Ministry of Commerce and Trade says that the total import of “sensitive” items during April-May 2006 has been Rs.2792 crores (USD 606 million) compared to Rs.2524 crore (USD 548 million) last year or an increase of 10.6%.<More>

IBSA Trade Rises Dramatically (September 12, 2006)
Calling the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) grouping an “emerging trinity in the new geography of international trade,” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) values the intra and inter regional trade close to USD 10 billion for 2007.<More>

Chinese Counterfeit Indian Brands (May 12, 2006)
Chinese counterfeit manufacturers have managed to duplicate several well-known Indian brands to close perfection and selling them all over the world including India.<More>/p>

Nathu-La Not as Spectacular As Expected (August 30, 2006)
With the hype over the reopened Nathu-La Pass dying down, India and China now understand that the modern trade potential on ancient silk route now replaced by a 56 kilometer stretch connecting the two nations is not spectacular as expected.<More>

India, EU Exploring CECA (August 30, 2006)
India and the EU have set up a high level group to study possibilities of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) that would cover trade in goods, services, and investments and submit a proposal during the Helsinki summit in October.<More>

First Indo-Russian Joint Study Group on Trade (August 28, 2006)
Indian and Russian trade experts are meeting this week to explore and discuss options that will remove bilateral trade blocks to achieve a USD 10 billion trade and lead to a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).<More>

ASEAN Unified Market by 2015 (August 28, 2006)
To stave off competition from India and China, Economic Ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted urgent measures and advanced deadlines to develop a unified and integrated market by 2015<More>

India May Face US Ire on WTO Failure (August 10, 2006)
In response to the collapse of World Trade Organization (WTO), US Trade Representative Susan Schwab hinted that her country may end a 32-year old program of trade benefits for 13 nations, including India, as retribution for hard-nosed negotiations.<More>

India-Sino Trade Slows Down (August 08, 2006)
Despite hype by the two Governments, Indo-Sino trade seems to have slowed down to a mere 28% in the 1st half of this year which is only 1/3rd of growth rates seen the last 2 years.<More>

SAARC Concluded Amid Indo-Pak Trade Dispute (August 07, 2006)
India complained bitterly to the commerce ministers governing the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) that Islamabad has failed to implement key provisions of the agreement into force and not granting tariff reductions to its exports.<More>

EEPC Estimates Engineering Exports at USD 23B (August 03, 2006)
The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) set an export target of $23 billion for this fiscal year up from $19.18 billion and said that the amount could even go up by another USD 1 billion from miscellaneous items.<More>

India Corporate Says No to Quota (July 31, 2006)
Senior members of the Indian industry met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and conveyed their opposition to legislated cased-based quota regime but promised that will fund training programs, introduce ethical hiring codes, and adopt alternative solutions.<More>

India to Raise Pak Trade Curbs at SAARC (July 28, 2006)
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told the Parliament that he will raise the issue of import restrictions by Pakistan at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit early next month in Dhaka.<More>

ASEAN Suspends FTA (July 28, 2006)
Malaysia’s Trade Minister was quoted saying that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has suspended free-trade talks with India because New Delhi is demanding that 850 goods it imports from South East Asia to be excluded from the list.<More>

RTAs to be More Transparent (July 14, 2006)
Countries like India that have been excluded from Regional Trading Agreements (RTAs) for political reasons will benefit from new Negotiating Group on Rules that require transparency mechanisms of World Trade Organization (WTO) be implemented in RTAs.<More>

Farm Sector Disagreements Stall WTO (July 05, 2006)
In further hardening of stance,  India has rejected heavy concessions from developing nations while only few concessions are forthcoming from developed nations especially in access to markets for agricultural and industrial products.<More>

India to Harden Stance at WTO (June 30, 2006)
Ignoring threats and warnings from World Trade Organization (WTO) personnel, India disclosed that it has toughened its stand on agriculture and industrial tariffs and asserting that development challenge of the Doha Round must be addressed. <More>

Tariff Relief per SAFTA (April 20, 2006)
At a meeting of South Asian Commerce Ministers meeting at Dhaka, India and Pakistan agreed not to charge import duties on 5% of products traded within the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) region.<More>

3 PHC workers for every 10,000 (April 12. 2006)
A recent World Wealth Organization (WHO) study revealed that India had only 3 Primary Health Care (PHC) workers for every 10,000 of its population, which also predicted a worldwide shortage of 4.3 million workers.
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India Refuses To Budge on WTO (April 07. 2006)
While World Trade Organization (WTO) warned India not to miss out on benefits of the Doha round and concede key tariffs to provide greater market access; India asserted that its 30% import rate sufficiently proved its market access credentials.<More>

India & GCC in new Partnership (March 28, 2006)
India and 6 Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) entered a new era of partnership with a free trade agreement (FTA) and framework agreement for economic cooperation.<More>

Indian Exports May Hit USD 100 Billion in a Month (March 15, 2006)
Moving in line with long-term goal of doubling India’s share of world’s trade in 5 years, going by recent export trends, value of Indian exports would be close to the USD 100 billion mark.<More>

India and Japan Expects to Sign CEPA (January 16, 2006)
Indian and Japan are expected to sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by the end of the year. <More>

Board of Trade Discuss Decline in Exports (January 11, 2006)
Federal Commerce & Industry Minister Kamal Nath has called for a Board of Trade meeting to discuss the alarming decline in exports in November 2005. <More>