Ministries of Eurasian Economic Union, India discuss possible agreements on exporting goods within free trade area

NEW DELHI. Sept 10 (Interfax) - The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and India have progress in preparing agreements on a free trade area, including conditions for supplying goods of mutual interest, Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Commissioner for Trade Andrei Slepnev told journalists at the sidelines of the Innoprom. India exhibition.

"The meeting was held at the ministerial level. We discussed the program and how we are going to proceed. We agreed to conduct the next round in November before Modi's [Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi] visit to Moscow. Moreover, this should be the key round and it will be centered around the key questions of access to the market," he said.

Earlier this year, the parties conducted two rounds of talks and agreed to prepare agreements in fast-track mode.

Slepnev said that during their meeting in New Delhi, the parties had "discussed specific agreements for key goods of mutual interests". "On the whole, we reached a serious understanding on approaches to the negotiation process and passed on corresponding instructions to the negotiation teams," he said.

Specific tariff decisions will be a topic for future talks, Slepnev said. He said that the EAEU and India had affirmed their "mutual striving not to slacken the pace [of talks], and indeed to increase it, in a literal sense, without affecting the quality of the agreements".