India and the European Union (EU) on Thursday agreed to ‘intensify' the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with the aim to conclude the FTA by October ahead of the India-EU summit.
An agreement to this effect was reached between the visiting newly appointed European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma during their bilateral meeting here.
“India and the EU agreed to give mandate to their negotiators to intensify talks and sort out the contentious issues in the next few months. In a follow-up action, a review meeting would be held at the political level to thrash out any other pending problem to conclude an agreement before the India-EU summit in October,'' an official spokesman of the Commerce Ministry said here after the meeting.
Mr. Sharma told Mr. De Gucht that India was looking forward to a balanced and ambitious outcome and significant gains were expected for Indian companies from the FTA. He also urged the EU Trade Commissioner to impress upon European companies to come and invest in a big way in infrastructure expansion being undertaken by India. An FTA with the EU had the potential to create new export opportunities worth $9 billion for Indian industries. India began negotiations for FTA with the EU, its largest trading partner, but the talks have run into a wall of differences, especially over EU efforts to link trade with sensitive topics which India wants to keep off the table.
The negotiations have been dogged by disagreements over market access, intellectual property rights, EU's insistence on including social issues like climate change and child labour. However, India has made it clear that child labour and environment issues are not part of the negotiations.
Talking to newsmen here, Mr. De Gucht said efforts would be made to hammer out all contentious issues before October. He stressed on the need for India to allow bigger market access for European companies, clarity on public procurement policy and services which had stalled the talks till now. “The child labour and climate change issues have to be addressed and EU Parliament will never agree to a deal that remains silent on these issues. But they are not likely to be binding issues,'' he added.
At the same time, Mr. De Gucht said the EU was ready to address the concerns of India with regard to services, especially granting more access to skilled professionals for working in EU countries. Trade between India and the EU has grown by 16 per cent annually and now stands at $106.4 billion. It is less than one-fifth of the EU's trade with China.
