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 Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday called upon countries of the Global South to forge new partnerships for building resilient supply chains, increasing trade and promoting tourism.

Addressing the virtual Voice of the Global South summit, Goyal said that India is providing unilateral duty-free market access to least-developed countries (LDCs) since 2008 through the duty-free tariff preference (DFTP) scheme, and therefore it is also open to enter into preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with interested countries in the South.

Highlighting the impact of Covid-19 on global trade and particularly on developing countries, he stressed upon the need to work together to build resilient supply chains. Goyal also emphasised upon the need for de-politicisation of the global supply of essential medicines.

"At the WTO Ministerial Conference held in Geneva in June 2022, India, South Africa, and other developing countries worked together to obtain the TRIPS waiver decision providing equitable and affordable access to vaccines. We shall redouble our efforts at the WTO to get the TRIPS waiver extended to Covid-19 diagnostics and therapeutics," said the Commerce minister.

He highlighted that the countries of the Global South are now contributing to more than half of the world's economic growth with South-South trade touching $5.3 trillion in 2021. In this regard, he urged for enhanced trade linkages for the mutual benefit of all our countries.

The Commerce Minister further said that the southern countries are also driving world investment. Indian companies are also investing in abroad in a big way, including in the Southern countries, he noted.