India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement likely by March 2012: John Key

NEW DELHI: New Zealand on Monday said it expects to conclude the negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement ( FTA) with India by March next year with the target of trebling bilateral commerce to $3 billion by 2015.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who is on a three-day visit to India, said both the sides have already completed about five rounds of negotiations.

"We expect it to be signed by March 2012," Key said here. However, he added that the conclusion would depend on the quality of agreement and negotiations.

The two countries hope to treble their bilateral trade to $3 billion from the current $1.2 billion.

The negotiations for India and New Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (the official name for FTA) started last year.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who visited Auckland in May, had said that the two countries can cooperate in several segments, including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, dairy products, research and development, tourism and films.

The country has already implemented similar agreements with Singapore and South Korea and signed such pacts with Japan and Malaysia.