India’s Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will meet EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht on June 26, in Brussels to discuss the proposed Free Trade Agreement between India and the EU.
India is a growing economic power and an important trade partner for the EU. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations was initiated in 2007 to increase trade in goods, services and investments between the two regions. Officially dubbed as the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), the negotiations seek to sharply reduce tariffs on goods and liberalise services and investments provisions. Inclusion of intellectual property rights and reduction in the tariffs of cars and wines imported from the EU are among the areas on which consensus is yet to be achieved.
India has already implemented comprehensive FTAs with countries such as Japan, Malaysia and South Korea and it is expected that talks on FTA with the EU will get closure by the end this year. Gateway House’s Akshay Mathur wrote an article for the Financial Times, titled India should be wary of Europe trade negotiations, which you can read here.