New EU Ambassador to India, Joao Cravinho meets Anand Sharma, focus on FTA

NEW DELHI: Intensifying efforts to reach at a consensus to conclude India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), new European Union Ambassador to New Delhi, Joao Cravinho met Anand Sharma today.

Negotiations are on between the two sides with an aim to sign the agreement to liberalise trade and announce it at the 12th annual India-EU Business Summit in the National Capital on February 10, Cravinho said.

"There is hard work on both sides... We are aiming to be able to announce something at the summit," he told reporters after meeting Sharma here.

Asked whether the FTA could be signed next month, he said: "I hope so."

On tariffs reductions on cars and wines, which the EU has been demanding from India, Cravinho said "...nothing is agreed, until everything is agreed."

He, however, said if the FTA is not signed next month, it is expected to be concluded by the year-end.

The Indo-EU FTA seeks to liberalise trade in goods and services, besides investment.

The negotiations which commenced in 2007 were to conclude in 2011, but differences on the level of opening of the market came in the way of the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), the official name of the FTA.