India, Brazil to Double Bilateral Trade by 2020

Jan 28, 2020

An interactive meeting on ‘Doing Business with Brazil’ was jointly organised by World Trade Center Mumbai, All India Association of Industries, Consulate General of Brazil in Mumbai and India Brazil Chamber of Commerce at World Trade Center Mumbai. Mr. Guilherme Patriota, Consul General, Consulate General of Brazil in Mumbai said, “India and Brazil are set to accelerate the bilateral trade and investment in next three years. Mr. Bolsonaro, Hon’ble President of Brazil to India, in his recent visit to India, released a joint statement with Mr. Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, to enhance the trade and investment in areas of oil and gas, bio-energy, cyber security, science and technology, mineral resources and animal husbandry along with dairy products. Both countries signed 15 MoUs to this effect. It has been agreed during the presidential visit that preferential duties covered by Mercosur agreement with India will increase from a list of goods currently at 450 tariff items to over 2000.

Mr. Patriota said that Maharashtra is India’s second largest sugarcane producer can look forward to adopt sugar-based ethanol technologies for fuelling low emission ‘flex-cars’ that can run both on gasoline or ethanol, interchangeably. The other areas of cooperation between Brazil and India particularly in Maharashtra are electric motors, steel, banking, retail automation and mining.

Mr. K. P. Bakshi, Chairman, Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA), stated, “While Maharashtra has four prominent river basins with Sahyadri range having excess water while Godavari basin has water scarcity. MWRRA is looking to adopt a less energy consumption technology with optimum utilisation of available resources. There are huge opportunities for Brazilian companies in micro irrigation, sewage treatment of urban and industrial waste as well as equalising available dam water in Marathwada. The combine cost of these products is approximately INR 3000 crore.”

Mr. Leonardo Ananda Gomes, President, India Brazil Chamber of Commerce and Honorary Consul General of India in Minas Gerais said, “The Chamber has 44 Indian companies presently operating in Brazil and 64 Brazilian companies in India. The number is rapidly increasing and the Chamber opened its third office in Rio de Janeiro. In my second visit to India since last 4 years, we are experiencing growing interest of Indian companies in Brazil and we are committed to facilitating the process.”

Captain Somesh Batra, Vice Chairman, MVIRDC World Trade Center Mumbai said that India’s total trade with Brazil is approximately USD 8.2 billion in 2018-19. Indian companies must take advantage of cultural similarities and expand their business with Brazil beyond services sector.

Mrs. Erika Patriota, Deputy Consul General of Brazil in Mumbai shared details of Brazilian companies in Maharashtra especially in waste water treatment. She offered to facilitate interaction between Brazilian companies and MWRRA for cooperation.

In Photo:

From (L-R): Mr. Y. R. Warerkar, Captain R. K. Gulati, Mr. K. P. Bakshi, Mrs. Erika Patriota, Mr. Guilherme Patriota, Captain Somesh Batra, Mr. Leonardo Ananda Gomes, and Ms. Rupa Naik.