India-EU Trade Talks to Resume by December

According to a Government official, after an eight year pause, India and the European Union (EU) are set to continue talks for a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) by December. Another official termed the India-EU connectivity partnership, announced in May, as a “counterfoil” to other such initiatives in an indirect reference to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

“India-EU trade talks are ready to begin anytime by end of the year… We have highlighted and discussions will now go ahead. It will be comprehensive talks,” the official stated.

At the India-EU summit in May this year, the two sides had consented to continue talks for BTIA that were halted in 2013 and also adopted a Connectivity Partnership document outlining strategies to cooperate on digital and infrastructure projects.

Mr. Sandeep Chakravorty, Joint Secretary (EW), Ministry of External Affairs on the Connectivity Partnership document stated “When we were discussing this document, one thing which was there in the back of our minds… was that we want to make it a counterfoil or an alternative to some existing connectivity initiatives…. We were very conscious of that…”

He was addressing at the launch of the report ‘India-EU Connectivity: Partnership for Development, Demand and Democracy’ coordinated by the think tank Research and Information System (RIS) for Developing Countries.

“Focus on our values, inclusiveness and transparency, local environment, preventing debt trap… These may not find mention in the alliance but they were part of our negotiations and we have been vigilant to fortify elements of it…,” Mr. Chakravorty stated in an implicit reference to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which has come under criticism for creating debt traps on smaller countries. “The two important elements that indicate, that courage are private sector participation and people to people connectivity,” he stated.

Talks for a similar pact with UK are anticipated to kick off from November 1, with both sides looking forward to firming up proposals for an early harvest pact by the end of this month. India and UK have set a March 2022 target for an interim trade agreement to be resolved, setting the stage for a broader pact later. In this concern, the official quoted earlier said India-UK talks will begin before the India-EU talks.

On the connectivity roadmap, Mr. Chakravorty told the core areas were connectivity within the country, building connectivity with Europe and in that process work other countries in South Asia and so on, also working with third countries, trade agreements, climate change and Info-Pacific. Asserting that the priority is trade agreements, he said that they are also working on secure supply chains. “There is reciprocal interest,” he added.

Giving an outline of the report, Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS said the report is based on the India-EU connectivity roadmap and the report covers three main areas — trade and investment. science and technology and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). “It covers the broad outlines of connectivity linkages and its different forms along with trade and investment linkages and also tries to explore a roadmap for effective implementation of Agenda 2030,” he stated.

Speaking at the event Ambassador, Delegation of the EU to India and Bhutan, Mr. Ugo Astuto, said connectivity covers not only physical infrastructure but also the regulatory framework which is very important. Emphasising on the principles underlying connectivity, he said it needs to be grounded on democracy and rule of law.

He said that it is their view to leverage the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the connectivity which is already funding a series of projects and metro networks across the country including Bengaluru, Kanpur and Lucknow.

As a part of the steps to implement the roadmap, there would be stakeholder workshops to identify specific projects and a forum in 2022 to conclude them, officials added.

Source: IBEF