India-Latin America engagements, May 2014

Pharma acquisitions

In March, the Indian pharmaceutical company Lupin Limited acquired Mexico’s Grin Laboratories, which makes ophthalmic products. Grin has $28 million in revenues. Lupin follows Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., which in 2005 bought Roche’s active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) business in Cuernavaca, Mexico, for $59 million.

Mexico is the second largest market for Indian pharmaceuticals in Latin America, after Brazil. It is a part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which allows Indian companies to use Mexico for exports to the U.S. and Canada, as well as locally.

Trade in 2013

India’s trade with the top 10 Latin American countries in 2013 declined or stayed static at $40 billion. The biggest trade partner is Venezuela, followed by Brazil, Mexico and Colombia (see tables). The 2013 trade figures followed sluggish global and regional growth, as well as declining commodity prices. The exception was Colombia: bilateral trade increased by 67% mainly due to an increase in India’s mineral imports. Now Colombia is India’s second largest trading partner in Latin America after Chile, overtaking Argentina, the third largest economy in the region.

Table 1. India’s trade with top 10 trade partners in Latin America

 Table 2. Top ten destinations for India’s exports to Latin America 

Table 3. Top 10 Latin American sources of India’s imports

Sources: Mercosur online (http://www.mercosuronline.com/comercio_exterior.php) for all 2013 figures except Venezuela; Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India (http://commerce.nic.in/eidb/Default.asp) for all Venezuela figures; and Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India (http://www.mea.gov.in/foreign-relations.htm) for all the 2012 data.

Ambassador Viswanathan is Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Studies, Gateway House. He is the former Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela, and Consul General in Sao Paulo.