Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said the government is committed to enter into market-opening free trade and investment agreement with the European Union by October, but without involving non-trade issues like environment and labour standards.
“We are working on it. As far as we are concerned, we have a commitment,” Sharma said here when asked whether the negotiations can successfully be concluded before the India-EU Summit in October in Brussels.
Sharma, however, asserted that no “extraneous issues” can be brought in the agreement. New Delhi and its largest trading partner-EU-have been negotiating the market-opening pact since June 2007 to give a boost to their bilateral commerce of around USD 82 billion.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 27-nation bloc is facing pressure from different groups for inclusion of extraneous issues like environment and child labour, which India is strongly opposed to.
“Issues are discussed, issues will always remain. We are very clear on our position...no extraneous issues can be brought into the India-EU trade and investment agreement,” Sharma, who is leading a FICCI delegation to the Finnish capital, told PTI.
The pact which was aimed at removing or reducing import duties and making bilateral investment flow easy was to conclude in 2009.
ADVERTISEMENT