MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

India wants to “deepen and expand” trade accords with Mercosur

Indian ambassador to Argentina Rengaraj Viswanathan

The Indian ambassador to Argentina Rengaraj Viswanathan said his country, currently the fourth largest economy in the world, is looking to “deepen and expand” its accords with the Mercosur and highlighted that Indian businessmen “use Argentina as a platform” to access regional markets.

“There's a bilateral agreement being enacted since June 2009 and we'd like to expand it,” he said, and added that “there are over 900 products being exported from India to the Mercosur and vice versa” for which now they are trying to increase that flow since the region is being considered a “long term business partner” by the Asian country.

Mr. Viswanathan explained that a first round of negotiations had already taken place in April and the Indian authorities are now awaiting a second round of meeting in September.

He also assured that “some companies in India are using Argentina as a platform to enter the Mercosur,” and considered that “Argentine companies can use the Indian market to do the same in the Asian region.”

“The Mercosur is growing,” he said, and quoted from a recent Cepal brief (UN Economic Commission for Latinamerica and the Caribbean) pointing out that, when compared to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, the four countries from the bloc ”would have the largest growth in 2010”.-