India awaits EU stance on FTA

NEW DELHI: Talks on the India-European Union free trade agreement will resume next month when the chief negotiators from both sides meet on July 15 to discuss the way forward. While India’s position is that it wants a trade pact with the EU, it expects the latter to state what it wants from the talks this time.

"The EU wrote to us a few days ago evincing interest in having a meeting here but this was before the UK exited the EU. We've told them that we want to negotiate and want a pact. We are waiting for them to tell us what they want," said an official aware of developments.

The meeting next month comes on the heels of Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s meeting with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom at the OECD ministerial meeting early this month. Officials from both the sides have met twice so far this year to resolve contentious issues.

India and the EU had started talks for a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in 2007 and 16 rounds of negotiations have taken place till now. Talks on the BTIA were stalled amid the prolonged downturn in Europe and its focus on concluding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement with the US. India then deferred talks that were set to resume last year in August after the EU banned 700 generic drugs that were tested at Hyderabadbased GVK Biosciences.