Italy’s trade mission to India with FTA on mind
After a gap of almost six years, Italy is come to India on a trade mission. Italian economy is recovering allowing the country to go out to countries like India and explore investment opportunities, stated Italian officials who attended the India -Italy Investment Forum. However, the topmost agenda of this mission includes pushing for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union.
After the European Union meeting with India did not produce any productive results, various European countries have been visiting India to speed up the FTA process. The Italian delegation was led by the Italian Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Ivan Scalfarotto. During the forum, he said, “We are trying to promote free trade but at this time many are against it (countries around the world).” Adding to this, Licia Mattioli, Vice President for Internationalisation of Confindustria said, “We have not evaluated the boost FTA will give. But our aim is that business should not stop due to delay in FTA.”
Scalfarotto stated that FTA is a strong tool which goes beyond trade. In midst of protectionism, he feels that Italy is pushing for globalisation. He reiterated views of many past leaders, he said that idea of globalisation was coined to eliminate poverty and consider everyone as a global citizen. He also pointed out that everyone is preaching free trade but are not following it.
Scalfarotto also revealed that Italy aims to take bilateral trade between India and Italy to 8.5 billion euros in 2018. It is estimated that around 600 Italian companies are present in India. Out of them, 140 companies are large companies. In 2015, Italy invested 1.2 billion euros in India. Apart from infrastructure, the Italian companies are looking at food processing and renewable energy sector for investment. Scalfarotto added, “Only 10 per cent of the total agriculture produces are transformed (in India, huge per cent of agriculture produce are wasted due to lack of technology). We are looking at using our technology to reduce this wastage of food.”