India-EFTA FTA operational from Oct has opened big opportunities for Indian exporters: Norway envoy

New Delhi: India-EFTA (European Free Trade Association) FTA could provide a beacon of hope for Indian traders impacted by American tariffs with the four European economies ready to provide opportunity to exporters from here.

India-EFTA (Switzerland-Norway-Iceland-Liechtenstein) FTA, that came into force on October 1, has opened opportunities for Indian exporters in sectors including textiles, according to Norwegian envoy to India May-Elin Stener.

The EFTA will also enable to increase Norwegian fisheries exports to India and also contribute to Norwegian businesses, including green shipping and LNG, according to Stener.


“India-ETFA FTA…it’s certainly a milestone for us, for Norway and for the other countries. It’s a little early, of course, to say exactly what the impact is, but we see a lot of interest, a lot of interest Norwegian companies. And I can give two examples. At the India maritime week in Mumbai, there were several Norwegian companies there in the maritime sector, who are really showing more interest than ever in the maritime sector. And the maritime sector is one of those sectors that will be important for us as Norway, and in the cooperation between Norway and India,” according to Stener.

“At the Indian maritime week, we had our minister of fisheries and ocean policy there. So, being minister of fisheries, she’s also in charge of Norwegian seafood export. And, we can all already see that there is a lot of interest for the sea food export from Norway to India.”

India and Norway are also expanding cooperation in the green shipping sector. “We also expect the same to happen in the green energy sector. We have developed some cutting-edge technologies.”

India-EFTA FTA is not only a free trade agreement, it is also a partnership agreement. There are about 160 Norwegian companies operating in India either directly or through agents.