India says the GCC is its largest trading bloc partner.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and India saw $154bn of bilateral trade in the financial year 2021-22, according to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Exports to GCC countries were valued at approximately $44bn and imports at around $110bn during the year.
India trade with GCC
At the same time, bilateral trade in services between India and the GCC countries was valued at around $14bn.
Exports in this category, amounted to $5.5bn, and imports were worth $8.3bn, the Ministry said.
GCC countries accounted for almost 35 percent of it’s oil imports during fiscal year 2021-22 and made up 70 percent of its gas imports.
Overall crude oil imports from GCC countries during this period were worth about $48bn, while liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas imports in fiscal year 2021-22 amounted to $21bn.
Cumulative investments from the GCC are currently valued at more than $18bn, according to the Ministry.
With such a high level of content to the economic relations between the GCC and India, Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Dr. Nayef Falah M. Al-Hajraf, Secretary-General of the GCC, have decided to pursue negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the country and the GCC countries, the government’s Press Information Bureau said.
“Both sides agreed to expedite conclusion of the requisite legal and technical requirements for formal FTA negotiations. The FTA is envisaged to be a modern, comprehensive agreement with substantial coverage of goods and services,” Bureau said.
“Both sides also agreed to significantly expand and diversify the trade basket in line with the enormous potential that exists on account of the complementary business and economic ecosystems of India and the GCC,” it added.
The UAE’s relations with the country are steadily heading towards broader horizons of fruitful cooperation, with the objective of creating promising opportunities for development and economic prosperity in the two countries the UAE foreign minister said.
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