India-Argentina trade US$3.09 billion in 2019-20
The Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Dinesh Bhatia, has called on industry houses in India and Argentina to explore trade opportunities in a wide range of sectors including energy, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and agriculture products.
“It is the opportune time for the Industry houses of both nations to come forward and explore trade opportunities in sectors like agriculture & food processing, agri-machinery, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, energy and mining,” the envoy said in a video conference organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on ‘India-Argentina Business Promotion, Challenges, and Opportunities – Post-COVID 19’.
Bhatia’s elaborate list also included ICT, plastics & petroleum, handicrafts, toys, automobiles, tyres, bicycles, engineering goods and tourism.
Bhatia highlighted that total bilateral trade figures of US$3.09 billion achieved in 2019-20 between both the nations are highly historic that grew tremendously in the last few years with high shares.
While giving a brief about Argentina, he touched on the commonalities between the two countries in terms of rules of law, security, agriculture dependency, climate diversity, the land size make the two countries great trading partners.
The Indian-Argentinian current import-exports are mainly in vegetable oil, petroleum, organic chemicals, and finished leather among others.
Suresh Kumar, Joint Secretary, FT (LAC), Commerce Ministry, shares about Argentina being a leading trade partner in the Latin American region for India.
He also underlined India’s interest to strengthen bilateral ties with Argentina.
“Our export and imports from and to Argentina have increased from the past few years favorably and, we have a growing trade relationship with each other,” said Kumar.
“India sees Argentina as its major partner in achieving food security and, we are keen on investing in Argentina in the field of agriculture.
“We are taking initiatives to strengthen our relations,” he assured.
India also has an interest in sectors like mining, timber, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, agriculture machinery, mining machinery, textiles, energy, IT, and many more.
Kumar further deliberated about the initiatives undertaken by the Commerce and Industry Ministry to promote trade exchanges between the two countries.
The Toy Association of India President Ajay Aggarwal outlined the toy industry and their potential drivers.
By increasing the custom duty of the toy imports, the Indian government has opened a level playing field for Indian manufacturers of toys and games, he added.
The industry is taking the opportunity for scaling up and reducing the dependency on other countries, he informed.
The relationship shared by India and Argentina is based on deep-rooted economic, cultural, and political relations, according to Pradeep Multani, Vice President, PHDCCI.
He suggested measures that can increase exports from India including additional support of funds; focus on business delegation outbound and inbound; focus on Make In India; enhancing more budget for economic studies; research and development activities; virtual exhibition space and many more.
Rashmi Chopra, Co-Chairman, International Affairs Committee Americas, PHDCCI threw light on the sectoral issues faced by the Indian Industry, specifically in the textile sector, pointing out that it is compulsory to legalize the export documents when doing business in Argentina.
PHD Chamber Secretary General Saurabh Sanyal informed that the PHD Chamber, with the support of Embassy of India in Argentina, will be organizing Virtual b2B Meet sometimes during 3rd week of September 2020 as a follow up to interactive session held 8 August 2020.
The interactive session, moderated by Naveen Seth, Principal Director, PHD Chamber, was attended by over 100 industry stalwarts from across the world. The conference was organised in association with The Toy Association of India. fiinews.com
