On Sunday, India signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with European Free Trade Association (EFTA) bloc comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland with a goal of reaching $100 billion in investments in India and one million jobs.
The India- EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) was signed by commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Swiss federal councillor and head of the federal department of economic affairs Guy Parmelin, Iceland’s foreign minister Bjarni Benediktsson, Liechtenstein’s foreign minister Dominique Hasler and Norway’s trade minister Jan Christian Vestre.
“It is for the first time in the history of the world that we are inking a free trade agreement, with a binding commitment from the EFTA countries to invest $100 billion in India on the back of the solid foundation laid in India,”Goyal said.
This was the third major trade deal finalised by the Centre since early 2022 when New Delhi signed separate bilateral agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia. India is also negotiating big-ticket trade deals with the European Union and the UK.
The EFTA countries, which are separate from the European Union, said that, for the first time, the FTA also included a chapter on commitments to human rights and sustainable development.
