India, Qatar to soon finalise contours for trade pact talks; deal likely by third quarter 2026

Doha, Oct 6 (PTI) India and Qatar will soon finalise the contours to negotiate a free trade agreement and the pact is expected to be concluded by the middle or third quarter of next year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

The minister is here for a two-day visit. He is leading a business delegation to increase trade and investments between the two countries.

"I would think that sometime by the middle of next year, or third quarter of next year, we will be able to finalise an FTA (free trade agreement), if not earlier," he told reporters here.

Qatar is an important trading partner of India in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with bilateral trade of over USD 14.15 billion in 2024-25.

GCC members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

India already has a trade pact with the UAE. A similar deal is likely to be signed with Oman soon.

Goyal said that he held discussions with Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al Thani, Minister of Commerce and Industry of Qatar on trade related issues.

"We have discussed that we should quickly launch FTA negotiations. We are discussing the contours of terms of reference and once we finalise that, the Qatar Minister and I have discussed that we will fast-track it so that trade and business can double by 2030 from USD 14 billion today to USD 30 billion," he said.

In a free trade pact, two countries either significantly reduce or eliminate import duties on maximum goods traded between them. They also ease norms to promote trade in services and attract investments.

The trade relationship with Qatar remains heavily skewed toward energy imports, with petroleum crude and gas products making up nearly 90 per cent of India's total imports from Qatar.

India's exports to Qatar totalled USD 1.68 billion, while imports surged to USD 12.46 billion, producing a substantial trade deficit of USD 10.78 billion in the last fiscal.

Key energy components imported by India from Qatar include liquefied natural gas, liquefied butanes, liquefied propane, petroleum crude, and other petroleum products.

The other imports from the Middle East nation include fertilisers, organic chemicals, plastic raw materials, aluminium and aluminium products, dye intermediates, and inorganic chemicals.

India's exports of USD 1.68 billion to Qatar reflected mixed trends across sectors, with industrial products, food items, and machinery dominating the basket.

In 2024-25, it included products of iron and steel, rice, gold and precious metal jewellery, processed minerals, motor vehicles/cars, petroleum products, electrical machinery, electronics, buffalo meat, and sugar.

India received USD 1.53 billion in foreign direct investment from Qatar from April 2000 to June 2025.

The Indian minister also co-chaired a meeting with business leaders of both the countries.

"I can see a lot of opportunities and possibilities here," he said, adding there is a tremendous potential to increase cooperation in agri, food products, non-conventional energy, renewable energy sources, data centres, tourism, cosmetics, pharma and artificial intelligence.

When asked about the movement of USD 10 billion investment commitment by Qatar, he said they have already invested between USD 4-5 billion in India and another USD 1-1.5 billion is already in the pipeline where they are looking at opportunities and are almost at the finalisation stage.

"They are looking at good promoters and good projects in India and I am hopeful that our associations like CII and FICCI will certainly provide very good opportunities for investment in manufacturing and in services (sectors) like banking, insurance and AI and data centres and real estate," he said.

"And we can see much more than the target of USD 10 billion from Qatar in the years to come," he said.

When asked if increasing exports to Qatar will help deal with high US tariffs imposed on India, Goyal said that Qatar is India's trusted friend and trading partner.

"We want to strengthen our trade and mutual relations with Qatar and we want to strengthen our relations with other countries as well," Goyal said. PTI RR ANU