India and European Union to resume talks on free-trade agreement in January

NEW DELHI: India and the European Union will resume talks on a free-trade agreement in January after a lengthy break, raising hopes of a speedy completion to the long-drawn process. Talks on the India-EU Broadbased Investment and Trade Agreement have stalled amid the prolonged downturn in Europe and its focus on concluding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement with the US.

Indian then deferred talks that were set to resume in August after the EU banned 700 generic drugs that were tested at Hyderabad-based GVK Biosciences. The government said it was “disappointed and concerned by the action.” EU’s negotiators are now expected to be in India next month. “They will come in January. We are waiting for them to share the dates,” said a senior commerce department official.

The development comes a month after the 28-nation bloc offered to discuss the ban as a separate legal matter so that the free trade agreement talks can be resumed. “We would be picking up the threads after a long hiatus. We need to see if the positions have changed. So, we will be negotiating anew,” the official added. India and the EU have missed at least four deadlines to clinch a free-trade accord, even after 15 rounds of talks.


The two sides have been negotiating the proposed free trade agreement since 2007 but differences over the lack of access for Indian professionals to EU’s labour market and high taxes imposed by New Delhi on liquor and car imports from Europe have thwarted efforts to reach an accord that is expected to boost trade. India’s exports to the EU amounted to $49.3 billion in FY15, while imports stood at $49.2 billion.

In the April-August period, these were $18.5 billion and $18.4 billion, respectively. The EU is destination to almost 18% of India’s exports with products such as apparel, textiles, information technology, gems and jewellery, and pharmaceuticals leading the pack.

On the other hand, the EU is one of the largest sources of overseas investment in India. With the free-trade pact talks getting a new lease of life, value-added exports such as those of textiles and garments could get a boost. The EU is a large market, which is willing to pay the price for value-added goods, experts said.