India, EU step up efforts to seal trade deal by Dec

Hectic parleys at the political level are on to conclude trade negotiations between India and the EU by December, with commerce minister Piyush Goyal’s two-day Brussels visit on Monday coinciding with a three-day India visit of a seven-member European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA) the same day.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

While the two high-profile visits are expected to discuss and iron out remaining trade and investment-related issues between the two sides, the FTA negotiating team of the EU is likely to visit India in the first week of November, people aware of the development said, requesting anonymity.

It is not immediately clear whether the New Delhi visit of the EU negotiating team in November will mark the beginning of a fresh (15th) round of negotiations or it would be an extension of the 14th round. Even as the 14th round of India-EU FTA negotiations was concluded in Brussels between October 6 and 10, the two sides were engaged through virtual modes.