NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is expected to sign an economic agreement on Sunday with a group of four European countries aimed at increasing trade and investment, two officials with knowledge of the talks said, capping nearly 16 years of negotiations.
New Delhi expects the countries of the European Free Trade Association – Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – to invest as much as $100 billion over 15 years in the fast-growing market of 1.4 billion people.
India’s federal commerce ministry did not immediately reply to Reuters request for comment.
In the last two years, India has signed trade agreements with Australia and UAE. A deal with Britain is in its final stages, according to officials, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of achieving $1 trillion exports by 2030.
The European group, set up in 1960 as a counterweight to the European Union, is the world’s 10th-largest goods trader and the fifth-largest in services. It has signed around 30 trade agreements with 40 countries and territories outside the EU.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by William Mallard)
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