India and Egypt are set to take the first formal step towards a possible trade deal. On Sunday, the two countries said their officials would jointly draw up the terms of reference (ToR), the outline that shapes what will be discussed once formal negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement begin.
The announcement was made at the India-Egypt Joint Trade Committee meeting, where Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal spoke. On the Egyptian side, the meeting was chaired by Mohamed Farid Saleh, the country's Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade.
To finalise the ToR, the two sides plan to form a working group. From India, the effort will be led by Petal Dhillon, a Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, whose team will work alongside its Egyptian counterparts in a time-bound manner, Goyal said.
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“I welcome the announcement,” the minister said. In his view, the ToR could potentially lift the relationship to the next level, covering not only trade and investment but a broader partnership that extends into fields such as education.
‘Need To Be Much More Ambitious'
At present, India and Egypt trade goods and services worth $6.5 billion. Goyal made it clear he was not satisfied with that number, saying both sides “need to be much more ambitious”.
He pointed to a number of sectors with room for closer ties. These ranged from pharmaceuticals and healthcare to engineering and automotive, as well as agriculture, digitisation and fintech. Museums also featured on his list.
Egypt's museums and cultural heritage draw admiration across the world. In New Delhi, the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum is being developed at the historic North and South Block Complex as a landmark national cultural institution.
Payments In Focus
Much of Goyal's message centred on how the two countries pay each other. Encouraging trade in rupees and Egyptian pounds, he said, would deepen economic links and make it cheaper to do business. The Reserve Bank of India and its Egyptian counterpart are already working towards this, he added.
Goyal also floated the idea of connecting UPI, India's digital public infrastructure for payments, to Egypt's payment systems.
“More trade in local currencies and more work on payment systems can transform the way we do business, bring down the cost of doing business and help businesses to do much more,” he said.
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(With PTI inputs)
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