India to gain concessions on nearly 1800 tariff lines from Chile

Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that an agreement on the expansion of India–Chile Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) was signed between the two countries on Tuesday which will increase the concessions on a larger number of tariff lines.

“Under the expanded PTA, Chile has offered concessions to India on 1798 tariff lines with Margin of Preference (MoP) ranging from 30%-100% and India has offered concessions to Chile on 1031 tariff lines at 8-digit level with MoP ranging from 10%-100%,” the Ministry said in a statement.

India’s export basket with Chile is diversified and keeping in view the wide variety of tariff lines offered by Chile, the expanded PTA would immensely benefit India, the Ministry stated.

In a report by Financial Express before the signing of the agreement, it stated that under the expanded PTA, 86% of India’s exports to Chile will get covered with concessions, which is likely to result in doubling of our exports in the near future.

The signing of the agreement took place in a meeting held between Rita Teaotia, Commerce Secretary and Andrés Barbé González, Ambassador, Embassy of Chile.

This is just an expansion of the initial agreement signed on March 6, 2008 which came into force with effect from August, 2007.

The Ministry stated that in the original PTA concluded in March 2006, India’s offer list to Chile consisted of 178 tariff lines the Margin of Preference (MoP) ranging from 10%-50% at 8-digit level and Chile’s offer list to India consisted of 296 tariff lines with MoP ranging from 10% - 100% at 8-digit level.

Among the LAC countries, Chile was the third largest trading partner of India during 2015-16.

India‘s bilateral trade with Chile stood at $ 2.64 billion with exports at $ 0.68 billion and imports at $ 1.96 billion respectively during 2015-16(P).

“Chile has been cooperating with India at the International fora and expansion of India Chile PTA will enhance the trade and economic relations between the two countries. The expansion would be an important landmark in India-Chile relations and consolidate the traditional fraternal relations that have existed between India and LAC countries,” the Ministry said in a statement.