New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) An agreement aimed at boosting trade between India, Brazil and South Africa is expected to be inked during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Brazil this month.

"The agreement will figure on the agenda during the prime minister's visit to Brazil this month," according to Jayant Dasgupta, joint secretary in the commerce ministry.

He was speaking at a meet on the economic cooperation between India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and think tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) here Friday evening.

The IBSA, formed after the Cancun talks of the World Trade Organisation in 2003, aims to foster closer political, economic and cultural ties among the three countries.

A free trade agreement among the three may not be possible because Brazil is a signatory to Latin American free trade agreement (FTA) Mercosur and South Africa to the SACU.

The customs union known as Mercosur includes Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela, apart from Brazil. SACU, the oldest customs union in the world, also includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.

Yet efforts are on to help realise the trade potential among the three developing countries, Dasgupta said.

An action plan by the three countries on standardisation that takes into account their own imperatives is required to reduce non-tariff barriers.

India can negotiate a preferential trade agreement with South Africa, as it already has one with Brazil in place. Another agreement between Mercosur and SACU was being worked out, Dasgupta said.

"Much work has to be done in order to realise the potential of IBSA. The customs authorities of the three countries have to align their procedures in order to reduce barriers to trade and business," the official said.

With the common economic goals of liberalising trade in agriculture without trade-distorting subsidies, "IBSA has worked to change the minds of those want status quo in multilateral negotiations," said R. Vishwanathan, joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs.

RIS Director-General Nagesh Kumar said IBSA was a trade facilitation framework aimed at liberalising trade in services, investments and technology transfers. It would foster sectoral cooperation as well as coordination at multilateral forums.

Brazil's Ambassador to India Jose Vicente De Sa Pimental said ties among Brazil, India and South Africa were relatively new and still tenuous.

"Brazil has identified the challenges in improving the ties and will work on them," the ambassador said.

"The three countries need more inter-personal exchange and more people-to-people
contact. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit will go a long way to foster such ties," he added.

Manmohan Singh is scheduled to visit Brazil Sep 13-14, followed by a visit to Cuba to attend the 14th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.