While commercial negotiations accelerate in the midst of American tariff threats, India and the EU have managed to close two other chapters in the last series of discussions and narrow gaps, a government official said on Tuesday. The two parties have now agreed to seven of the 23 chapters on the current negotiations for what could be the greatest trade agreement that India has ever concluded.
Satya Srinivas, special secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, said the last (12th) series of talks ended last week in Brussels. “We have exchanged our offers on services and non-service … There have been discussions on this subject. We also discussed key interests in access to the market related to goods too … The next cycle of talks (will take place) during the first week of September, “said Srinivas. However, the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is not part of the EU trade negotiations, EU ambassador to India last month. “I came to discover that CBAM is one of the best known acronyms in India. First, CBAM is not a commercial measure. This is not part of the trade and the ALE. It is a question of complying with our climate program to accelerate decarbonization, “he said.
On February 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the president of the European Commission agreed to conclude an ALE agreement by the end of the year.
Deal Asean
Special Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Rajesh Agrawal, said that the 10th and 11th cycles of talks would probably take place in August and October in Malaysia. “We are engaged in the negotiations. Nine series of talks have been concluded so far … The progress so far has been checkered – not what it could have been – but the right part is that we are going ahead on many aspects, in particular customs and commercial facilitation,” said Agrawal.
In addition, he said that talks are also progressing on issues such as technical cooperation, SPS (health and phytosanitary) and TBT (technical obstacles to trade) collaborations.
“We hope there will be a physical round in August and … another in October in Malaysia. We therefore hope that in these two laps, we should be able to make good progress and try to have a kind of conclusion when the Asean-India summit takes place at the end of October.
The examination of the agreement is a long -standing request for the national industry, and India is impatiently awaiting an improved pact which will approach current asymmetries in bilateral trade and make trade more balanced and lasting.
© The Indian Express PVT Ltd
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