Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
India and the European Union were aiming to finalise a free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of 2025, prime minister Narendra Modi said on Monday. Speaking at the India-Cyprus CEO Forum in Limassol,
According to agency reports, Modi also stated that driven by next-generation reforms, policy predictability, stable polity and “ease of doing bnusiness,” India has become the fastest-growing major economy in the world.
In June 2022, India and the 27-nation EU bloc resumed negotiations for the comprehensive trade agreement, an investment protection agreement and a pact on geographical indications after a gap of over eight years. So far 11 round of negotiations on the agreement have been held.
Additional secretary in the department of commerce L Satya Srinivas said here on Monday that the next round of talks with the EU for the FTA would be held from July 7 in Brussels.“There are some tracks we are working together on this week. Momentum has picked up in the talks and frequency of meetings have gone up. Earlier negotiating rounds were held every quarter now we have reduced the time period between rounds,” he added.
Out of the 23 chapters in the FTA with the EU, five have been completed. “We have a large number of issues on which we are trying to find a convergence so that we move towards the closure of the agreement,” Srinivas said.
Last month, India and UK announced completion of negotiations on their FTA. “The agreement is getting ready to be signed. Work on documentation is going on and legal scrubbing is in progress. The process will be completed within three months from the date of the completion of negotiations and we are sticking to that,” Srinivas said.
The key ask for India from the EU in its negotiations is zero tariffs on labour intensive exports and greater access to the services market of 27-member grouping. The EU is pushing for India to cut tariffs on cheese and skimmed milk powder, which India currently shields through high duties to protect its domestic dairy industry. Indian officials say that they would be unwilling to provide concessions in dairy in any of the FTAs. Even in the UK FTA dairy has been kept out.
European winemakers are pushing for greater access to the Indian market, where imported wines currently face a 150% tariff. The EU wants India to eliminate or significantly reduce these duties to 30-40% levels. India may like to match what it offered to Australia under the ECTA, where tariffs on Australian wines were slashed to 50% in 10 years.
European car manufacturers want India to cut import duties on completely built-up (CBU) vehicles to 10-20%, down from the current 70%. The EU already exports over $2 billion worth of automobiles and auto parts to India annually, with most arriving in completely knocked-down (CKD) form, which face a 15% tariff when assembled locally.
[ad_1]
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
[ad_2]
Comments are closed.