India - EU: Talks on FTA Soon
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India’s successful free-trade agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Australia in the last two months have encouraged the European Union to plan three rounds of talks with India this year to conceptualise a basic framework under which the partners will negotiate a comprehensive deal to raise bilateral trade to over $220 billion in five years. The present bilateral trade is $110 billion
The EU recently expressed its intent to a team of Indian government officials led by commerce secretary B.V.R Subrahmanyam.
“The conceptualisation [with EU] is a great step forward which will make it easier to start negotiations for a comprehensive trade deal within this framework,” said Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) director general & CEO Ajay Sahai said.
India-EU trade negotiations have been halted since 2013 over the movement of Indian professionals and high Indian tariffs on European farm produce.
FTA with UK also on the cards
The UK too, after its exit from the EU, is keen to expedite bilateral trade negotiations with India and separate formal discussions with it could also happen with the year. According to an official, it’s possible that the India-UK FTA may happen before the EU deal as both New Delhi and London may not insist on a two-stage trade deal; this is because the UK is keen to conclude a full free trade agreement (FTA) without resorting to an interim deal, this person explained. The current value of bilateral India-UK trade is $ 50 billion (both goods and services).
After signing the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), commerce minister Piyush Goyal said New Delhi is working on FTAs with the UK, Canada, Israel, Gulf Cooperation Council, and the EU.
