India's annual bilateral trade with Germany will reach the target of 20 billion euros ($27 billion) by 2012, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said here Monday.

'The State of Lower Saxony (Germany) could be an important trading partner of India in sectors like agriculture, mining, crude oil, manufacturing, aviation, shipbuilding, biotechnology, steel, tourism and telecommunication,' Kamal Nath said during an interaction with Lower Saxony Minister-President Christian Wulff.

The bilateral trade between India and Germany has shown consistent growth. During 2007-08, the trade was of $14.7 billion against $11.5 billion during 2006-07.

India's major exports to Germany include readymade garments, machinery and instruments, electronic goods and transport equipment while imports from Germany consist of machinery (except electrical and electronics), iron and steel, machine tools and organic chemicals.

Regarding the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, Kamal Nath said: 'We remain committed to a rule-based multilateral trading system.'

It is important that the development dimension of trade talks remains at the centre. For India and other developing countries, putting the livelihood of hundreds of farmers at risk would be unacceptable, he said.

Foreign investment approvals from Germany during 1999-2008 were of $2.9 billion and the actual inflow was of $2.2 billion.

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