Free trade pact with India and Brazil moves closer

AS A result of various cooperation agreements signed by the heads-of-state at the second IBSA (India, Brazil and SA) summit in Pretoria, the three-way free trade agreement (FTA) has taken further steps towards finalisation. SA president Thabo Mbeki, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio da Silva and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh put pen to paper on a number of accords – and re-affirmed the goal of achieving an FTA between India, the Mercosur bloc of South America and the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu). It also noted “significant progress” in negotiations already held before the summit at the beginning of October.