European Commerce Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is expected to visit India next month to assess progress negotiations for free trade agreements (ALE) with the Minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, said PTI, citing an official on Wednesday. The visit should coincide with the conclusion of the 13th round of talks, scheduled from September 8 in New Delhi.The next round is considered to be crucial because the two parties aim to finalize negotiations by the end of this year. “A little movement should be there in this series of talks,” said the manager, adding that the councils of ministers may be necessary to solve the remaining problems, as some questions may require a political decision.The 12th round of talks ended in Brussels. India and the EU block of 27 countries had taken over the negotiations in June 2022 for a complete ALE, an investment protection agreement and a pact on geographic indications (GIS) after a gap of more than eight years. Earlier, the talks had stalled in 2013 due to differences in the level of market access.On February 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen agreed to seal the long-awaited free trade agreement by the end of this year.The EU demanded significant rights reductions in cars and medical devices, tax reductions on products such as wine, spirits, meat and poultry, and a solid intellectual property framework. A successful conclusion of the pact could make Indian exports such as ready -to -use clothing, pharmaceutical products, steel, petroleum products and more competitive electric machines.Negotiations of the India-EU commercial pact cover 23 political areas, in particular trade in goods, trade in services, investment, health and phytosanitary measures, technical obstacles to trade, commercial remedies, rules of origin, customs and trade facilitation, competition, commercial defense, government purchases, dispute resolution, intellectual property rights, sustainable.The bilateral trade of India with the EU amounted to $ 137.41 billion in 2023-24, with exports worth $ 75.92 billion and imports to $ 61.48 billion, which makes the largest EU negotiation partner for goods. The EU represents approximately 17% of the total exports of India, while EU exports to India represent approximately 9% of its shipments abroad.In services, bilateral trade in 2023 was estimated at 51.45 billion dollars, which highlights the growing importance of EU-Indian economic partnership.
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