Why is it in News?
→ India and the Netherlands established a Joint Trade and Investment Committee to deepen bilateral trade and investment cooperation.
→ The mechanism aims to remove trade barriers and promote MSME-led two-way investments.
Important Points
- India–Netherlands Joint Trade and Investment Committee (JTIC) has been established.
- Objective is to deepen bilateral trade, investment, and economic cooperation.
- Focus on identifying and eliminating trade barriers.
- Special emphasis on promoting two-way investments for MSMEs.
- Cooperation includes transfer of technical know-how and technological innovation.
- Netherlands is India’s 11th largest global trading partner.
- Netherlands is India’s largest trading partner in the European Union.
- Bilateral trade stood at USD 27.34 billion in FY 2023–24.
- India enjoys a trade surplus of USD 17.39 billion with the Netherlands.
- Netherlands is India’s largest export destination in Europe.
- Core priority sectors include Water, Agriculture, and Health (WAH).
- Collaboration areas include Green Hydrogen and climate action.
- Netherlands’ Indo-Pacific Guidelines (2020) identify India as a key partner.