India, Israel close to finalising free trade pact.

Hyderabad, May 16 A high-level delegation from Israel will visit India later this month to engage in discussions that will eventually pave the way for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two nations, according to a senior official of the Israel Mission in India.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Eli Belotserkovsky, Deputy Chief Mission, Embassy of Israel, said that there are very few issues that need to be sorted out to finalise a FTA between the two nations .

The FTA is expected to triple trade between the two countries.

“The bilateral trade is evenly matched at about $2 billion. As per estimates, this trade volume will go up to $6 billion once the FTA is signed. Apart from engagement between the two Governments in various projects, the trade growth would be expanded through public-private participation projects and business to business ties,” he said.

Mr Belotserkovsky said Israel has concluded FTAs with Canada, Mexico and the US and their FTA with the EU dates back to 1975.

“We believe that manufacturers from India could benefit as they will also have access to other markets through Israeli agreements with other nations,” he said.

Software services, telecom, medical equipment, agriculture and homeland security are among the key focus areas.

“We are not good at mass production or heavy equipment, where India can play a big role. Textiles is another area which has immense potential between the two nations,” he felt.

Through Government-to-Government cooperation, special attention has been given to agriculture.

As a part of this arrangement, centres of excellence for agriculture are being set up in Haryana and Maharashtra, with cooperation from the respective State Governments.

These centres will serve as demonstration farms.

The land owners will have access to latest technologies, cultivation techniques, pesticides and post-harvesting support to improve yields by saving on water consumption and optimising investments.

Two such centres are coming up in Haryana at Karnal and Sirsa. One of the centres is for fruits and the other, for vegetables.

“Once these would be operational by October, we will take up three more centres in Maharashtra. The idea is to help these centres serve as model farms for replication in other States and by farmers within these States,” he said.

Manufacturing base

A leading pesticide and farm nutrient manufacturer from Israel, Agan Makhteshim, is in the process of establishing a manufacturing base in Andhra Pradesh.

It employs around 400 people now and plans to increase this number significantly, once it gets into production.

Another diary company is in the process of finalising plans for a large dairy farm in Andhra Pradesh, which will have over 10,000 cows, he said.

“We are also working on a water harvesting project for Cherrapunji, which is known to be one of the rainiest parts of the world. Yet parts of this place do not have drinking water,” he said.

Source : Business Line