India and the European Union (EU) are preparing to hold the next series of negotiations on their free trade agreement (ALE) proposed in September.
This development comes as the two parties exchanged by the services linked to the service sector last week, a manager confirmed on Tuesday.
What happened during the last series of discussions?
Satya Srinivas, special secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the 12th round of talks recently concluded in Brussels, PTI reported.
“We have exchanged our offers on services and non-service,” he said, adding: “We have also discussed key interests in market access related to goods.”
The 13th round of upcoming talks will be held in the first week of September, confirmed Srinivas.
Optimism in the air
In June 2022, India and the EU block of 27 countries resumed negotiations for a free trade agreement, an investment protection agreement and a pact on geographic indications (GIS) after an interruption of eight years.
The talks had stalled in 2013 due to differences on the market opening level, the news agency reported.
The two parties are optimistic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President of the European Commission agreed on February 28 to conclude a much awaited free trade agreement by the end of this year.
What are the key requests?
The EU has already put pressure for significant reductions on articles such as cars and medical devices.
Apart from this, the block also required a tax reduction on products such as wine, spirits, meat, poultry and an intellectual property regime.
If the pact is successfully concluded, exports of Indian products to the EU, such as ready -to -use clothing, pharmaceutical products, steel, petroleum products and electric machines, can become more competitive.
Commercial pact covered areas
India-UE Trade pact negotiations are complete, covering more than 23 political areas. These include
- Negotiate goods and services
- Investment
- Health and phytosanitary measures
- Technical obstacles to trade
- Exchange remedies
- Rules of origin
- Customs and facilitation of exchanges
- Competition
- Commercial defense
- Public procurement
- Dispute resolution
- Intellectual property rights
- Geographical indications (GIS)
- Sustainable development
India-UE Trade Relations
The EU is India’s largest trading partner against goods, bilateral trade reaching 137.41 billion dollars in 2023-24.
The figure includes exports worth $ 75.92 billion and imports worth $ 61.48 billion.
The EU market represents approximately 17% of the total exports of India, while EU exports to India represent 9% of its total shipments abroad.
In addition, the bilateral trade in services between India and the EU was estimated at $ 51.45 billion in 2023, the news agency reported.
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