The Trade Relation Between India And Papua New Guinea: Past, Present And Possibilities

Cheers!

Have you ever tried mixing tea and coffee? Does it sound crazy? If blended masterfully, then it can be a real game changer indeed. There is actually such a drink in Hong Kong named Yuanyang (translates into lovebirds).

It’s extremely popular due to its super strong energy quotient. There are few things in the world, which unite people so effortlessly as food and beverages do. Often, we get easily connected to each other at once through drinks. When we think of India, it’s certainly tea and when it comes to Papua New Guinea, you can’t even think of anything else other than coffee. Let’ see how a Yuanyang is in the making, to cater to the needs of the fast-growing markets of both the countries.

Wealth Seems Common

These two Commonwealth nations have one thing in common – wealth. Both India and Papua New Guinea are blessed with ample natural resources. While the former is lucky enough to have plenty of human resources too, 1.39 billion to be precise. India boasts of notably iron ore, manganese, chromite, coal, bauxite, arable land among other important natural resources which are substantial. On the other hand, Papua New Guinea has natural gas (35 trillion cubic feet), oil (500 million barrels), timber, gold (23 million ounce), copper, marine essentials on the top of its natural resources list.

Two Way Traffic

For quite some time, there has been a strong trade relation between the two sovereign states, which has only got deepened gradually with the passage of time. The several trade routes have witnessed huge transportations going on both the directions. One might need to wait longer these days, as the traffic continues to increase drastically. The following chart shows India’s total annual exports to Papua New Guinea over the last decade.

India has been exporting various goods to the island nation and that too in large quantities, lately. In this table, one can see the wide range of products that has sailed through the Indian ocean in recent times.

Whereas, timber, gold, copper ores and concentrates, copra, marine products, coffee, vanilla and cocoa are the usual faces in the other way round. Among all, rough wood topped the charts in 2019, with $39.9M. In the same financial year, PNG’s gross annual export to India was valued at $68.7M.

The Signal Appears Green

In the last couple of years, there have been clear indications on the part of both the parties regarding their sheer willingness to improve the bilateral trade relations even further. Also, PNG went on to strike some significant deals globally in order to strengthen their economy. Here are some of the major developments in recent years –

• In January, 2018, PNG’s delegate team, led by the Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Richard Maru, sealed an economic partnership agreement with India.
• In 2008, PNG inked an agreement with Exxon Mobil which resulted in the $19 billion PNG LNG project.

Sky Is The Limit

As the stakes are quite high, due to the rich prospects in every other economic aspect, the bilateral trade relation between India and Papua New Guinea is expected to experience an exponential growth in the coming years. We have to wait a bit, as the Yuanyang is getting prepared to be served hot.