BackIndia, EU to meet over free trade agreement in January
The leadership of the two sides are also planning their regular summit in the first half of next year
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New Delhi: Aiming to put their sometimes-difficult relationship behind them, India and the European Union (EU) will try and open a new chapter in bilateral ties, with their officials expected to sit down in January to take stock of their long-pending free-trade pact.
The leadership of the two sides are also planning their regular summit in the first half of next year.
The impetus for rapprochement came from talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, in the Turkish city of Antalaya in November on the margins of the G-20 meet.
“We are now in the process of opening a new page in our relations," said Tomasz Kozlowski, the EU’s new ambassador to India. At Antalaya, both India and the EU expressed their willingness to re-engage with each other, the ambassador said.
On the free-trade agreement negotiations, Kozlowski said India and the EU were “important partners of each other in the trade field. In this context, I would like to emphasize that the European Union is committed and interested in concluding an ambitious and comprehensive free-trade agreement with India.
“Now the agreement is that we will re-engage... that both sides will sit down and see what are the options, what are the expectations of both sides, how we can move this agenda forward," Kozlowski said, adding that the “stock-taking meeting" on the proposed FTA will be held in January in New Delhi.
The negotiations on the FTA, called the Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), began in 2007, but the two sides have missed at least four deadlines to clinch a deal even after 15 rounds of talks. The last round of talks were held in 2013.
Differences over the lack of access for Indian professionals to EU’s labour market and high taxes imposed on liquor and car imports from Europe have thwarted efforts to reach an accord that is expected to boost trade between India and the EU. Bilateral trade between the two sides last year stood at $100 billion.
The two sides were to resume talks at the chief trade negotiators’ level on 28 August but India cancelled the proposed 28 August meeting in protest against an import ban by the EU on 700 of its generic drugs for alleged manipulation of clinical trials.
According to Kozlowski, the “temporary" ban did not question the quality of Indian pharmaceuticals but European regulators had problems with one specific laboratory in India that was issuing drug certifications. Indian manufactured drugs approved by other labs were being sold in the European market, he said. Currently, there was “close cooperation" between Indian and EU negotiators on this subject, he said adding “As I understand, the (drugs ban) issue does exist any more."
On broader economic cooperation, Kozlowski said India’s flagship programmes like the rivers rejuvenation programme, Digital India, creation of 100 Smart Cities and urbanisation were some of the areas where European countries were keen to partner India. “Conceptually, the Indian government is very much advanced in the process of implementation" of these programmes, he said.
Commenting on the “Make in India’ initiative, aimed at boosting local manufacturing, Kozlowski said Modi had been able to draw investment for the programme. There was also interest from European investors in the programme, he said. “But two issues are important. Foreign companies, they don’t make assessments of intentions, they make assessments of reality. For foreign investors it is extremely important to have an environment that is predictable, which is stable, where regulations are clear," the EU ambassador said.
Though India had implemented a number of policies to create a conducive environment to attract foreign investments, there were still some things to be done to ensure a stable environment for investments, he said.
On the political dimension of relations, the EU will hold discussions with India on counter-terrorism, maritime and cyber security at the next India-EU summit that both sides hope to hold in the first half of 2016, Kozlowski said.
India and the EU were to hold the summit in April but Brussels did not confirm the dates, in a sign that the EU was upset over India apparently dragging its feet over two Italian marines facing trial in India for the killing of two Indian fishermen in 2012.
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