India should also focus on removing non-trade barriers to promote trade and investment in the country, Italian Trade Commissioner to India Amedeo Scarpa said.
The new government was trying to promote FDI, but there was no word on removing non-trade barriers which was important to promote trade, Scarpa told an interactive session with the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
He was referring to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India labelling regulations that led to holding back of hundreds of shipping containers of imported food and alcohol by the customs.
It was estimated that at least 50 containers of alcohol were stranded for labelling rules.
He said in 2013, the total bilateral trade was USD 7 billion.
"First, we have to recover trade of USD 10 billion we had in 2011-2012 and we don't see why cannot we get back to that by 2015," Scarpa said when asked about trade projections.
Consul General of Italy in Kolkata Cesare Bieller said there was huge potential in exchange of knowledge for promoting business exchange with West Bengal.
He also said state should promote tea tourism which held a lot of potential besides leather and food.
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