India-Brazil trade to grow to $10 billion in next few months

Commerce and industry minister, Anand Sharma, said yesterday that the India-Brazil bilateral trade would grow to from $7.73 billion in 2010 to $10 billion in the next few years.

He said this in a statement after his meeting with Antonio Patriota, minister of external relations, Brazil, in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, both countries agreeing to set up a CEOs forum CEOs Forum identified the priority sectors – energy, oil, tourism, pharma, value-added manufacturing, mining and agro-processing. Sharma expressed satisfaction on the signing of an Air Service Agreement between India and Brazil.

According to the minister there existed huge potential for cooperation between the two countries in SMEs, IT, science and technology, engineering, energy, infrastructure and nuclear power.

The issue of imposition of anti-dumping duties on Indian products such as PET films (polyethelene terephthalate), jute yarn, jute bags etc also came up for discussion during the meeting. Sharma pointed out that currently, no anti-dumping duty had been imposed by India on import of any items from Brazil. The minister also raised the issue of flexibility in business visas.

Sharma also highlighted a proposal for organising an ''India Show'' in Sao Paulo in March, 2011. The proposed eveent would serve an ideal platform for a number of Indian and Latin American entrepreneurs / companies to explore and discuss business opportunities and tie- ups in trade and investment, he added.

India and Brazil on Tuesday decided to forge stronger trade and economic ties and decided to work towards achieving a target of $10 billion bilateral trade over the next few years from the $7.73 billion in 2010.