India should expand its commercial and multilateral footprints in South America, a senior Brazilian diplomatic source told The Hindu on Wednesday. Brazilian and Indian officials will hold talks on September 29 in Brasilia to find a bilateral trade breakthrough before the Goa BRICS summit of October 15-16.
India at present has over 450 tariff lines with MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market), but the diplomat said that the bilateral plan is to raise the tariff line to 4000. Both sides have already begun to take several steps to firm up India’s involvement in MERCOSUR that covers apart from Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela.
Taking steps for Indian investment in Latin America, EMBRAPA (Brazilian Agriculture Research Corporation) signed an agreement on Wednesday with Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) for exporting Brazilian lentils to India. “We are doing the research to see the different varieties and productivity of lentils in India and after completing the study, we hope to start export of Brazilian lentils to India,” Blairo Maggi, agriculture minister of Brazil told The Hindu highlighting that lentil exports from Brazil to India will be a historic first in bilateral ties.
“I always believed that BRICS countries need to trade more among themselves and India-Brazil talks are aimed at increasing this trend”, Mr. Maggi who is on a tour of South-Southeast Asia told The Hindu and added, “Brazilian agriculture sector faces a lot of opposition while trading with India which should be removed,” Mr. Maggi said.
Keeping in mind the need of Brazil’s economy which is recovering from a phase of prolonged political turmoil, Brazil’s programme at the Goa BRICS summit will highlight its unique and vast agricultural potential. “It has been an uphill struggle to build Brazil’s sustainable agriculture sector and we want to showcase this sector to both BRICS and BIMSTEC partners like Thailand, Myanmar and others,” the visiting minister said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting on September 17 where Brazil is likely to push for greater presence of India in MERCOSUR.