Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma and the Trade Minister for S. Korea, Kim Jong-Hoon, at a Joint Press Conference on Jan 20.

Saurabh Gupta | 20 Jan, 2011
India-South Korea bilateral trade will easily be in a position to achieve the trade target of USD 30 billion by 2014, said Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry at press conference held in New Delhi today.

The minister told this to media during the question answer secession of the Joint Committee at the Ministerial Level (Ministerial Joint Committee) to review the implementation of the India-Korea CEPA.

Sharma said that the signing of CEPA with Republic of Korea in August 2009 underscored our strong commitment to deepening trade and investment linkages between our two countries.

He also said that it has now been a year since the agreement has come into force and in 2010 the bilateral trade between our two countries stood at nearly USD 15 billion, witnessing a growth of nearly 44 percent over the previous year.

"Though in a recessionary backdrop the trade between our two countries has grown five fold in the last 8 years," he added.

He said, "I am confident that as exporters on both sides develop a better understanding of the advantages presented by this agreement through a liberal tariff regime, we should easily be in a position to achieve the trade target of USD 30 billion by 2014."

"The services economy will, particularly benefit from a liberalized regime on both sides and will form an important building block for augmenting the bilateral trade between our two countries. We view the agreement with the Republic of Korea to serve as an economic bridge between South Asia and the larger East Asian economy, paving the way for a larger regional economic integration across the continent of Asia," he added.

KIM Jong-Hoon, South Korean Minister for Trade and Anand Sharma, had extensive discussion on bilateral trade and economic relations, trade policy and progress in the Doha Round of WTO talks. The Korean minister led a high-level delegation comprises business, professionals and government officials.

The Ministers shared the view that both countries should work further to encourage mutual investment. The two sides identified measures to be taken for enhancing Korea’s investment in India.

The Ministers shared the view that a strong multilateral trading system is vital for ensuring future growth in the world economy and committed themselves to continue their cooperation to achieve an ambitious, balanced and comprehensive conclusion of the Doha Development Round as early as possible.

It was decided that the next Ministerial Joint Committee meeting would be convened in Seoul in 2012.