External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) is expected to be a ‘game changer’ and within a ‘short planned timeline’ India is looking forward to a mutually advantageous conclusion to the negotiation process for the pact.
He was addressing an event at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He also added that the strategic autonomy of both regions can be strengthened by reducing dependencies, cooperating on critical technologies, and ensuring supply-chain restructuring.
“We expect the India-EU FTA will be a game-changer for the India-EU relationship. We look forward to a mutually beneficial, mutually advantageous conclusion to the negotiation process within a reasonably short planned timeline,” he said.
India and the EU restarted negotiations for the long-pending trade and investment agreement in June last year after a gap of over eight years. Launched in June 2007, the negotiations for the proposed agreement have witnessed many hurdles as both sides had major differences on crucial issues.
“India’s new approach to trade agreements addresses issues of non-tariff and behind-the-border barriers, quality standards, and related benchmarks,” Jaishankar said.
Behind-the-border barriers are non-tariff discriminatory trade barriers within a country.
He further added that FTAs with Australia and the UAE were concluded in record time and that a fast-track change in FTA negotiation processes was seen with like-minded partners.
He also said that the India-EU FTA was a very important goal and that both regions can strengthen each other’s strategic autonomies.
He noted that the the structure and strategic guidance to the partnership between the two sides will be provided by the recently unveiled Trade and Technology Council (TTC).
He concluded by saying that relations between India and Europe are stronger and deeper than ever before and that the business community of both regions have a large stake in the largest democratic and free market space globally.
