Warning that the impasse in the India-European Union free trade negotiations could also hurt investment into India, the Members of the European Parliament “Delegation for Relations with India” urged the government to consider a six-month extension of bilateral investment treaties until the FTA or the comprehensive BTIA (Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement) negotiations are restarted.
The delegation, one of three with senior officials from the EU and European Parliament visiting India this week, met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss their concerns.
Nearly 11 months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Brussels and spoke about the issue, EU diplomats say there has been no movement on the BTIA/FTA talks that were suspended in 2013 after 16 rounds of negotiation.
“One of the problems is the termination of the bilateral investment treaties by India. The European Union is saying, it would be very helpful if they could consider extending these by at least about six months to enable new mechanisms to be put in place,” said Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Geoffery Van Orden, speaking to journalists in Delhi.
Need for urgency
The officials said there was a need for a “greater sense of urgency”, given that BITs with most EU countries would lapse within the first half of 2017. The Bilateral investment treaty with The Netherlands, a country that is home to the second largest population of people of Indian origin in Europe, after the UK, lapsed on November 30, and the rest are expected to follow shortly.
“We are hoping for at least an extension. Even Indians settled in the Netherlands are concerned about the trade relationship, so as soon as possible we would like to see the negotiations restarted,” said the member from the Netherlands, Cora Van Nieuwenhuizen.
Amongst the other arguments put forth by the delegation were that businesses in their countries would like to invest in India only once the government “guarantees” the process in India, which would follow the conclusion of the BTIA.
However, while the EU is keen for either negotiations to be started as soon as possible, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Seetharaman is understood to have conveyed that both negotiations should be taken up together. Insurance costs would also increase significantly in the absence of the agreements.
The MEPs also pointed out that in the wake of US President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) with Asian countries and leave the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TIPP) in limbo should worry India as well.
Apart from the BTIA, the MEPs said they were also concerned by “growing violence in Jammu and Kashmir” that was “hampering better ties between India and Pakistan”.
British MEP Mr. Orden also warned that many Human rights agencies had been enlisted by “apologists for terrorism”, adding that both at the EU and in the European parliament, “groups were trying again to work up the J&K issue,” in a reply to a specific question about the Universal Periodic Review of India at the Human Rights Council on May 4th, but clarified that he was not speaking for the European parliament, which in December 2016 raised Human rights concerns on Dalit issues.
