EU trade deal talks: Piyush Goyal says can't accept 'irrational commitments'

No self-respecting nation can have a free trade agreement with the European Union unless the latter stops superimposing its non-trade agenda into bilateral trade negotiations, India's commerce minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday hinting that New Delhi will not sign any FTA with the EU if it insists on including matters such as the carbon tax and deforestation regulations in the pact.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

NEW DELHI:

Replying to a specific question on the timeline of the India-EU FTA negotiations at the 9th Global Technology Summit co-hosted by Carnegie India and the ministry of external affairs (MEA), Goyal said: "My sense is, we'll be able to complete most of the discussions quite amicably."

"There will be two areas on which European Union will have to rethink," he caveated. "One is these non-trade issues which they seek to superimpose into trade agenda. Unless they get that out of their system, and the European Commission will need to reflect on it... it [will be] very difficult to get a trade agreement with anybody, whatsoever," he said.