European Union and pair of Indian flags on the desk on a devoured background. Horizontal composition with copy space and selective concentration. | Photo credit: Microstockhub
India and the EU can consider an early harvest trade agreement, which can be won early, before finalizing a complete agreement that could take a lot of time due to various issues, said senior officials.
“There are problems – not basic business issues – which take more time. We think it is better to focus first on basic issues. We are talking with the EU what we can do. We adopt a pragmatic approach with the EU,” said Sunil Barthwal trade secretary on Tuesday during an interaction with the media.
In February of this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen decided to conclude the negotiations for the FTA India-UE project by the end of 2025.
American price impact
The urgency of concluding the talks could be mainly allocated to the plans of the American president Donald Trump to impose reciprocal rates on the commercial partners, although the two leaders did not make the direct mention.
However, EU’s passion to include non-commercial issues in its commercial pacts, such as labor standards, environmental regulations, gender and sustainability provisions, could lead to delays because they are economically and politically sensitive issues in India, said a manager.
In an early harvest agreement, business partners could focus on certain aspects of a commercial agreement, which are low -maintenance fruits, while leaving other items to take later.
“If the problems of non-negotiation are excluded, the possibility of concluding negotiations by emphasizing trade by the end of the year increases,” said the official. The EU is the largest regional trading partner in India.
India and Australia, for example, agreed with a first harvest pact in December 2022 and are now working on a complete pact. India and the United States also intend to conclude the bilateral trade agreement proposed in the tranches.
The 11th cycle of negotiations for the proposed of the ALE between India and the EU is planned from May 12 to 16 in New Delhi.
Negotiations for a complete economic partnership agreement (CEPA) between India and the South American nation of Chile were launched on April 1, according to the additional trade secretary L Satya Srinivas.
Chile is the fifth largest trading partner in India in the lake region (Latin America and the Caribbean) with a bilateral goods trade at $ 3.59 billion in April-February 2024-25.
India is also in talks with Peru for an ALE and the seventh cycle of talks took place earlier this month.
Posted on April 15, 2025
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