India, China to work on FTA recommendations

NEW DELH: Trade ministers of India and China will meet in the first week of April to consider the recommendations of the Joint Task Force on the India-China Free Trade Agreement.

"The two trade ministers would meet in the beginning of April in Beijing to look into the recommendations of the Joint Task Force on the India-China FTA," Commerce Ministry Joint Secretary Dinesh Sharma told reporters here on Wednesday.

The ministers would discuss in what way the recommendations of the Task Force have to be worked upon and how to take the process forward, he said, while speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on 'A Road To Chinese Market'.

The 103rd session of the Canton Trade Fair would be organised in April in the Guangzhou in China. To increase imports in China from other countries, an international pavilion has been added in the fair.

About the Indo-China trade, Chairman of the Council of the China Foreign Trade Centre Zhang Zhi Gang said, "The current bilateral trade is $38.6 billion. India is the tenth largest trade partner of China, while China is the second largest trade partner of India."

He expressed hope that trade between the two countries could reach a balanced level.

Every year, about 5,000 Indian professional buyers, which represents around 2.5 per cent of the total number of foreign purchasers, participate in the fair.