'Sustainability' Still Looms Over India-EU Trade Talks

The India-European Union free trade talks have gathered pace with both partners starting sector-specific negotiations for the first time after narrowing chapter-wise differences, but their key disagreement over "sustainability" issues persists, which they hope to address in the forthcoming 11th round of talks starting next week in New Delhi, according to people in the know.

- Rajeev Jayaswal and Rezaul H Laskar

NEW DELHI:

Significant achievements have been made on core chapters related to market access, hence sector-specific discussions have been initiated, starting with the automotive and medical devices industries, they said requesting anonymity. Market access is core to any FTA and the proposed India-EU free trade talks have built a "considerable" consensus on several chapters such as trade in goods, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies, rules of origin, government procurement, services and investments, they added.

The two partners aim to conclude the agreement by the end of 2025.

After the meeting between leaders of both sides in New Delhi on February 28, trade matters have now gained precedence in negotiations over vexed non-trade issues such as sustainability, carbon tax and deforestation regulations, they said. They were referring to European Union president Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting during the college of commissioners' India visit in February this year.

While the EU's insistence on making sustainability a "binding" part of the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) is still a contentious issue, the two sides have agreed to discuss the matter in their next meeting scheduled from May 5 in the Indian Capital, they said. India is all for environment protection, but it does not want to make it a part of an FTA that could be used against India by any of the 27 EU members as a non-tariff barrier, they added.