India committed to close FTA with EU by Oct: Anand Sharma

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SME Times News Bureau | 29 Mar, 2010
The ongoing negotiation for a market opening free trade and investment agreement between India and the 27-nation bloc European Union is expected to conclude by October this year, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Sunday.

"We are working on it. As far as we are concerned, we have a commitment," Sharma told a news agency in Helsinki 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. 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.

Negotiation between India and the EU for a FTA started in June 2007 covering a range of areas like trade in goods and services, customs cooperation & trade facilitation, dispute settlement, competition and IPR, etc. So far, eight rounds of negotiations have been held. The eighth Round of Negotiations was held in January, 2010.

"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 the news agency.

The pact which was aimed at removing or reducing import duties and making bilateral investment flow easy was to conclude in 2009.

India's trade with the EU has grown by 16 per cent annually and now stands at $106.4 billion. As a bloc, the EU is India's largest trading partner.