Oct 06: Revival of stalled EU-India talks on the Free trade Agreement is expected to be at the top of the agenda at the 14th India-EU summit being held in Delhi on Friday, to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi heading the Indian delegation and Presidents of the European Council Donald Tusk and European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini
As predicted by delWine, talks on an EU-India Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement - which seeks to improve market access for goods by eliminating tariff lines – were put on the back burner in 2013, 6 years after they were initiated in 2007 and many optimists claiming, had reached the final stage of negotiations.
delWine had predicted in September 2013 that the EU India talks would be stalled until the general election in 2014, ‘As always feared and reported by delWine many times, the ongoing talks on the Foreign Trade Agreement between EU and India reported by several newspapers in India to be in the final stage of negotiations, are most likely to be consigned to the back burner with the elections in India to be held next year, as FTA might be politically unsafe for the present government.’
‘According to our reliable sources in Brussels, the talks are now being stalled for precisely the same reason-the Elections 2014. January 2015 seems to be the earliest when the talks are expected to resume with earnest. No statement has been made by the European Union, nor is there a likelihood since such statements need not be issued. The process will not be stopped but just stalled. The next round is expected to take place within a month. Interestingly, no summit has taken place since February 2012. The Prime Minister of India and the President of European Union meet directly to discuss the progress usually once a year,’ as was reported in a Blog on 20 September ,2013.
The key stickler point from the EU side was the demand for a cut on imported cars and wine and spirits whereas India had strong observations on the intellectual property rights.
The EU, as a bloc of 28 countries, is India's largest regional trading partner with bilateral trade worth $88 billion in 2016, according to the report in Alliance UK.
Global security and counter-terrorism will also be discussed at the 14th summit talks. Indian and EU diplomats said strengthening cooperation in counter-terrorism and maritime security will also feature in the talks. According to the Report, other topics to be discussed include the current issue of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh following a wave of violence in Myanmar since the end of August, and other foreign and security policies in connection with the situation in the Korean peninsula, Ukraine as well Afghanistan.
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