TURKEY EAGER TO SIGN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH INDIA

ANKARA (A.A) - 08.09.2009 - Turkey's State Minister Mehmet Aydin said on Tuesday that Turkey wanted to sign a free trade agreement with India.
Aydin said that a free trade agreement was sine qua non condition for further improvement of bilateral relations with India. 
"We want to cooperate in contracting, energy and housing industries," Aydin said during a signature ceremony in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
Turkey and India signed the protocol of the Economic & Technical Cooperation Joint Committee meeting at the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat.
The Turkish minister said the trade volume between Turkey and India was up from 1.8 to 3 billion USD in a few years, and expressed his belief that this figure would rise to 5 billion USD in the near future.
Also, Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma said that India wanted to cooperate with Turkey in industries such as informatics, energy, textile and automotive, and two countries should set up a joint working group.
The trade volume between Turkey and India was 1.8 billion USD in 2006 and 2.6 billion USD in 2007. It was up 14 percent in 2008 over 2007, and reached 3 billion USD.
Turkey earned some 222 million USD from its exports to India in 2006, while this figure rose to 348 million USD in 2007.
Turkish exports to India was up 56 percent in 2008 over 2007 and reached 543 million USD. 
Turkey mainly exports poppy seeds, marble and travertine, iron, steel and vehicles, and imports artificial fibre, chemicals, automobile and cotton.