- “Thank you very much, Mr. Lange. And perhaps I'll start with your last question, because that's an important one. On on the commission side, certainly, we commit to keep you fully informed, and we're completely in your hands in terms of under what format you want to do this. I have already repeatedly indicated that for confidential information about the specifics in the negotiations. It would be good to have in-camera meetings, perhaps, of the monitoring group. But I want to emphasize that myself and my team, we remain available for bilateral contacts with all the MEPs who are interested in these negotiations. And there are many and I see many faces here this morning that I have also been meeting bilaterally to discuss just just that. But it's true that the end of the year is going to be a hell of a ride and and very intense if we are to get to an agreement, um, by the end of December. Um, now, there were many questions. I will have to be very, very short and brief in view of the time constraints. Uh, first, uh, Mrs. Maestri underlined the geostrategic importance, and other MEPs have done exactly the same. This is precisely why the European Commission has released an all encompassing, so to speak, joint communication with the eeaS. It's clear that trade is only one of the dimensions of the strategic relations between the EU and India. It's an important one, of course, but far from it's far from being the only one I've heard about climate. I know that mobility is an element that is extremely important to India, so we're trying to work on that.”
EU-India relations
- “But just to be very clear, discussions were extremely difficult when it comes to trade in goods, where we focused both on the rules for the trade in goods chapters and on the tariffs. Now, on the tariffs, there was no improvement whatsoever being hinted at by India when it comes to the important sectors of wines, spirits and beers, which, you know, already in back in 2013 were at the core of the disagreement that forced us to suspend the agreement. But on top of that, when it comes to the automotive sector, India finally made a concession a proposed made, made a proposal to try and Improve. Build on the first offer that had been exchanged a year and a half ago. But the quantities being envisaged are represent just a mere fraction, not just of the annual quantity of cars that are being sold and registered in India. But even compared to the thing, the elements that were being considered back in 2013 when when we thought we were too far apart. The talks were also very difficult on rules of origin and technical barriers to trade on rules of origin. It's quite logical because we come from different planets or I should say different galaxies. India is a high tariff economy and therefore the temptation to fraud, to abuse the rules of origin, to benefit from the preferences is extremely high compared to the EU, and therefore they need a system of verification that is much more burdensome than in the EU.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “Uh, but contacts are ongoing between, um, the Ministry of External Affairs in India, which coordinates and the commission to try and see if we can find a date before the end of, of this year. Uh, but there are three working groups in there, and they are making progress at different pace, of course. On trade, we have the FTA negotiations, the investment negotiations, the GI negotiations. So the TTC is perhaps less of a central part of the of, of of our relations in, in when it comes to trade. Um. Mr.. Al tola asked notably whether the participation of India in in these military exercises in Russia recently had been raised in the FTA negotiations. And there I have to say that the answer is no. I negotiate on trade. I have a mandate to negotiate on trade. But what I can assure you is that at political level, the point has been discussed, has been raised by by the European Commission with the relevant Indian interlocutors, but not in the FTA negotiating groups as such, which is, I think, logical. Now, on Mr. Mariani's point, uh, in the beginning, I was afraid you were trying to put words into my mouth that were going too far. But I think I fully agree with you. India wants to be treated as an equal. And, uh, it was only yesterday in my contacts with my Indian counterpart and some technicians from from different negotiating groups. They were expressions of frustration by the Indian side that somehow they were, and that was their feeling that they are treated as a lesser partner.”
EU-India relations · Intellectual property rights (IPR)
- “That is extremely ambitious, that has been immediately followed up and we have now changed gear. As you said, there was a second ministerial meeting of the Trade and Technology Council that took place also at the end of February. That was good because it's also true that we had a change in the Indian government. We've had a change on the European Commission side, obviously, and so that was very positive. But the big news when it comes to trade policy was indeed this announcement to close the FTA by the end of the year. Now, that has an immediate automatic implication beyond the fact that I will have with my colleagues to work more faster than we had anticipated. But we need to stop tactical games. And now we have come to the moment where we will have to make some difficult decisions. We entered the 10th round last week here in Brussels, again with the objective to prepare the recalibration of our approach with India in in our trade negotiations. Associations. I've been talking about this notion of a recalibration in the context of India for for quite a while now, whenever I come here or in the context of the monitoring group or with the India delegation of the European Parliament. I am a regular here, but now is is is crunch time. Now for last week for the 10th round we had two objectives.”
EU-India relations · Asia-Pacific
- “Uh, and it's a huge amount of work because, of course, we need to find what we call product specific rules. We need to agree on processors for each and every chapter of the tariff nomenclature. So it's a big, big endeavor. Their trade and sustainable development of course, continues to be challenging also. This is not a surprise. India had been clear from the outset that it did not particularly like the the way the European Union wants to link sustainability related issues and trade. But they've obviously accepted that we will need to have a chapter on this. But the notion that there would be dispute settlement, let alone sanctions, applying to those commitments, the idea that the commitments would be legally binding, that civil society would be involved in the management of the of the agreement from that perspective, but also that those commitments would apply at a subfederal level. These are all elements that are very, very difficult for for India and we will. We knew from the outset, I have said here very often that we should not fall in the delusion that India was a country like New Zealand, for instance. Of course, India has its specific challenges. We have to recognise that. And so by, uh, it's quite clear that we will need to to adjust the approach we usually take on trade and sustainable development, uh, to make sure that this is going to be something India can live with also.”
Due diligence in supply chains (environmental and human rights) · Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “It was special since we had the participation of Commissioners Shevchuk and Hansen. Uh, the idea was um, with through meetings with Minister Goyal in particular to to advance those elements of the package that will require political decisions on, on both sides, uh, to try and get to a commercially meaningful package that is acceptable to both sides. Now, while we were able to make some some progress during the round, both at a technical level, because we had a big number of negotiating groups meeting in parallel, but then also at political level in in these meetings that I just mentioned, we did not yet manage to make a real breakthrough in in the talks. Unfortunately, we did not we were not able to close additional chapters. And and I think as Commissioner Shevchuk himself said, um, the negotiations remain extremely challenging. Now important divergence remain on in the following areas. First, um tariffs. Uh, we we've had um, intensive discussions on sensitive and very important sectors for both sides, like on, on cars and car parts, on wines and spirits, but also on other agricultural products where India continues to be quite, quite protective. Um, I mean, the EU is also careful, of course, in this area, which is why both sides had jointly agreed earlier this year to set aside some of the most sensitive agricultural products so as to facilitate the negotiations.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “Outside of trade policy, because of course in the EU, uh, mobility, um, falls under different working methods than, than trade, which is an exclusive competence, of course. Um, Mrs. Niebler, thank you very much. I mean, I think you also referred to to the, the communication, uh, now on the, um, agreement on investment protection and the separate negotiation also on geographical indication. My sense is that, uh, while notionally, everybody would want all the negotiations to be closed at the same time. It's going to be more, even more of a challenge to close those one by the end of the year than the FTA on investment protection. We had been waiting for a very long time for an Indian proposal on a system of dispute settlement. Now we have this. So the negotiations are resuming, but we are not there yet. And on geographical indication, my understanding is that this is an area where we would need the ongoing legislative reform in India to be completed before we could close our negotiations. So there is a process in the Indian Parliament of reviewing the legislation on geographical indications right now on the the Trade and Technology Council. The state of play. We've had two ministerial meetings of this group. We're trying to find a Date for the next one. But as always, when you you have an instance, a forum where you have about six, if not even seven political figures involved. If you take the Indian ministers and the EU Commission and the HRP, it makes it a real challenge to find a moment.”
EU-India relations · Intellectual property rights (IPR)
- “Um, but obviously, as I said, we we will have a chapter. Not having a chapter on trade and sustainable development is obviously not an option, but we also need to make sure that this chapter cannot be an empty, uh, shell. So that is that is the challenge. Uh, we are we are facing now, again, this very general list is not exhaustive. And it would be too long to go into the detail of all the issues here. Again, perhaps I should liaise with, um, Mrs. Master, uh, to to see if we could have a more detailed discussion in, in the context of the monitoring group. Uh, but we also have issues in the text for trade in goods, um, on import, licensing, export duties. There are issues related to exceptions and whether or not to have a carve out for taxation measures altogether. Um, India continues to be very vocal in its opposition to some of the EU's, um, Green Deal related legislation. I'm thinking in particular of Cbam. If you read the Indian press, you will see that the level of dissatisfaction there is is pretty is pretty high. Um, so lots of discussions are going there are going on in those areas as, as well.”
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) · Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “But it's also true that in certain areas, we cannot automatically treat India the way we treat, I don't know, Switzerland or the United States country. Countries with which we have a very mature degree of relationship. Uh, what we have been able to do with Norway or Switzerland cannot automatically be extended to India. And that does not mean that India is not an equal. Um, we're also not automatically extending certain things to the US or to China. While we know very well that they are. We wish we were equal, if I may say, um. Mr.. Owen, you you you asked about what? Precise adjustments have have taken place. I'm afraid I cannot answer that. Here in in, in such an open forum. But as I said, willing to give all the details in a more restricted format. On agriculture, how to unlock. And I think Mrs. Hyman also stressed that agriculture should not be a variable adjustment. Uh, we agree with this. That's precisely why Commissioner Hansen travelled to New Delhi two weeks ago. Uh, we're planning more discussions on on agriculture. Uh, my colleagues in DG agri are working very hard to ensure that the package on agriculture, in the end, is both balanced and mutually acceptable. Uh, Mr. Owen, I think you also asked about WTO in the context of the Trade and Technology Council. There is a work strand where we try to cooperate with India on WTO related matters at senior officials level. Now, so far, it's fair to say that we don't always see eye to eye with India.”
EU-India relations
- “Now, the sense of urgency about the need to rescue, so to speak, the multilateral trading system is probably such these days that hopefully we will be able to to come to a joint position, and it's going to be very important that we cooperate in the run up to the next WTO ministerial Conference, of course. Um, Mr. Ibanez, thank you. And, and and obviously this, um, the the reminder of the importance of trade and sustainable development. Uh, I welcome that, uh, the ratification of ILO conventions is, of course, key, and the need for having some binding language is, uh, very much something that we are pushing. Yet at the same time, uh, at the end of the day, we will need to have an agreement. That can be acceptable to both to both sides. So the discussions continue. You've mentioned certain sensitive, uh, sensitivities on rice, ceramic. Uh, of course, steel is always an issue with India. Uh, these are well noted. Uh, Mrs. Zimmer, you also asked about the economic impact of on of a future agreement on agriculture. So perhaps there I would I would refer you to the sustainability impact assessment that has been conducted about precisely the economic but also social impact, environmental impact of a future agreement with, with, uh, with India on all the sectors of the European economy. Uh, also on India, by the way, and there is a section there on, on agriculture. Um, and on on sugar. You have indeed heard me well, saying that this was a sensitive, uh, sector that, uh, was not being negotiated. Therefore. Thank you.”
Due diligence in supply chains (environmental and human rights) · Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “Now again quoting um, Commissioner, uh, recently, uh, we had hoped to make more progress at the last round. The 13th one. Um, we, uh, we didn't manage, but we did improve our mutual level of understanding quite a lot. And this I want to be positive is very important, because when you reach the end of a process like the negotiation of a free trade agreement between two entities like the EU and India, things are bound to be difficult there. There ought to be frictions. It's absolutely it was absolutely expected that when we start negotiating on the most difficult issues, the most sensitive areas, it would not be easy. So we work harder than ever. We remain fully committed to concluding this deal by the end of the year. Um, the next round will take place in Brussels, um, in in ten days in the week of 6th October. But in between, I can assure you that there is a very intensive schedule of virtual, uh, video conferences. Uh, I had a long discussion with my Indian counterpart yesterday, for instance, to try and advance this this further. So this testifies of the Commission's desire to advance as quickly as possible so as to close by the end of the year. Thank you.”
EU-India relations
- “Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And indeed I was. I thought my negotiations were complicated with India on a free trade agreement, but I discovered coming here that there are other issues that are perhaps even more difficult. But but first, from the outset, let me stress that DG trade is not just happy to be here and and sort of, in any event invited and therefore institutionally summoned to be here. But for us, it's actually useful to ensure that members of Parliament have a full grasp of the task that is before us, because you will indeed be called on making important decisions. And here I'm not just referring because of the legal obligation that we will have to, you know, have an agreement ratified. But more importantly, in the case of India. And I'll come I'll come to the details of that. We're in presence of a partner that will probably force us to readjust the entire way. We we do trade agreements if we want to conclude within this new deadline. Um, but, uh, I'll, I'll, I'll go into the detail. We had the 10th negotiating round last week here in in Brussels. There are still some groups that will meet at the end of March. But so you can see that the political instruction that came from the highest level, it was not just president von der Leyen, it was also Prime Minister Modi that set this new timeline.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “Now, next steps very briefly, in the. On the 25th and 26th of March, we will have meetings of a few negotiating groups which could not meet last week, not because of the EU, but because of obligations and conflicting calendars on on our Indian counterpart side. But this is not necessarily a problem, but I will only be able to have an overall picture of the entire round by the end of March because the groups negotiating on investment, on digital trade and on state owned enterprise will only be meeting on the 25th and the 26th. So that is the immediate next steps. We will then. I mean, a very intense programme of Intersessional work has already been planned. We will then informally consider the situation. I will need to get clarity from my political hierarchy Commissioner, possibly with other commissioners, as to the kind of agreement we would then be envisaging under the new circumstances. We would be testing these ideas with with Member States. Happy to engage with the European Parliament. Of course, we have a monitoring group on the FTA negotiations with India that could be handy. We plan to have the 11th round of talks early May in New Delhi and possibly the next round in June in Brussels, but it's going to be very intense in the next few months. Thank you.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “One was to make progress on the core areas of the FTAs that we will absolutely need to have in the agreement. And the second one was to assess whether it would be realistic to think that some of the non-core areas could have a chance to land in an agreement that should be concluded by the end of the year. Because, again, as I hinted already, it is quite obvious that we're not going to be able to finalize a fully fledged free trade agreement. A la New Zealand. If you want, with India in the next ten months. First, India is not New Zealand that we all know. I think we we all recognize. But it's not just the size and the geographical location. It's also the general attitude to trade policy that is fundamentally different with, with with India. Now we have entered this round with a view to show full transparency as to what we could do and what we would need in this agreement, not just for us in the Commission to conclude it, but in our view, for that agreement to stand a chance, a realistic chance to then be ratified both in the Council and in the European Parliament. My feeling is that the Indian team has not always reciprocated. But, you know, the truth is in the eye of the beholder. Probably my Indian counterparts. They think that the EU was not sufficiently flexible and that India made more efforts.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations · Asia-Pacific
- “So no sanctions, no dispute settlement, no legally binding provisions, no involvement of civil society in the running and monitoring of the agreement. We made headways on trade in services. We're preparing market access offers. But on government procurement, we were less successful. And it seems that it's going to be extremely difficult to have a chapter at all, because the Make in India program or initiative of Prime Minister Modi prevents us from getting any non-discriminatory access fully fledged. So we will need to assert the possibility to assess the possibility of concluding something within those boundaries, within those parameters. And we will do that in conjunction with member States and the European Parliament in the coming weeks and months. One thing that I should nevertheless underline before I stop is that on all green deed related measures, India was very assertive. They have tabled a proposal requesting for exemptions or long transition periods from a whole list of EU regulations, ranging from cbam to deforestation to due diligence, but also the Anti-Corruption instrument, the Enforcement Regulation etc. and unless they get what they want, they have announced that they would need to be able to retaliate unilaterally by suspending tariff concessions against the EU. And my counterpart, the Indian chief negotiator, has been very, very clear that unless we do something concrete for them on Cbam, there shall be no agreement between the EU and India.”
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) · EU-India relations
- “So we would want as simple as possible, a rules of origin system in the agreement. India needs feels that it needs a very, you know, what we consider to be a very burdensome verification procedure to avoid the risk of, of abuse. Um, on technical barriers to trade, we have a partner with India that introduces very regularly new standards under the banner of the quality control orders. She owes a lot of European operators are being affected by that. And we have tested ideas with the Indian side to see whether some procedural arrangements could be found in the FTA to ensure that even if India raises the quality standards in the countries as they are perfectly and legitimately entitled to do that, European operators would not suffer too much from the uncertainty that goes with the changes. We had very positive discussions on intellectual property services dispute settlement. So that was really very positive. We made some progress also on trade and sustainable development. But I have to be honest that this is more on some of the peripheral elements of the TSD chapter when it comes to the core aspects that the European Union seeks to pursue in its TSD negotiations and the outcome of the TSD review. India is in no way able to agree to anything coming close to what we have with New Zealand.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations · Intellectual property rights (IPR)
- “How to deliver in time was the second question. And I think there we're going to have to to change gear. But we've done that already. And I can confirm that both Minister Goyal and Commissioner Shevchuk are now fully engaged. They have seized themselves with the with the negotiations. They exchange very regularly. They speak over the phone, they exchange text messages and they have had very good, a very good personal chemistry on the sides of the college to government visit. At the end of of February, there was a dedicated session on on the free Trade agreement in Mumbai on the Saturday following the college to government visit, and that has injected a very positive level of energy at the political level, which is going to be necessary throughout the year, because obviously my role is to to run a team of colleagues that deal with the details and with the details. As we say, devil is in the details. We will see a lot of problems and we will gradually have to find a way to solve those problems. So with my counterpart, the Indian chief negotiator, we will play our role in some sort of a pyramid where will, will, will make sure that only the most difficult political questions are brought to the political level. But there will be such decisions that will need to be to be made on on that front.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “Um, anticipating on on the questions put I think by, by the greens or it was not really the question but the, the remarks. I fully of course obviously agree that we should not backpedal on our values. Now, to be very honest, there is our values have led us to deploy a legislative agenda that is having an impact on third country, on, on, on partners, on the international stage. I would, you know, I would not be playing my role here if I was not informing you that this generates a lot of resentment on the other side. And so it's going to be obviously a balance between sticking to our values, the things that are absolutely fundamental to us, who we are, so to speak, and not going overboard by projecting elements that are being used to accuse the European Union of neo colonialism of extraterritorial impact. Um, and that balance is not going to be easy, but that's going to be a very political one. And the European Parliament will have to play its role in this, in this, in this debate. Um, before you spoke, I think Mrs. Han, um, asked for concrete ideas about recalibration, and we will come with this. We are also keeping member states informed, but that is something that I would be more comfortable raising more in detail In the monitoring group on the Trade and Technology Council.”
Due diligence in supply chains (environmental and human rights) · Free trade agreements (FTAs) · Sustainable corporate governance
- “Thank you very much for for all these detailed questions, for the support and for the expression of understanding about the strategic importance that there is for the European Union and India to conclude an agreement in times of geostrategic turbulence, when the world of trade is is kind of being turned upside down. Now I'll go I'll try and go through the list. And certainly I want to perhaps already thank Jürgen Warburn for having said something that I wanted to say. You will understand that there are elements that I would only be able to to share in camera or in, in the monitoring group on the, on the FTA negotiations with the with, with India. But how to ensure that India reciprocates on on on on our concessions was a question that Jurgen asked on behalf of Mr. Al Tola. I think, uh, you know, we are a huge single market. We come we have leverage in these negotiations. But of course, in the end, the only way we will ensure that we get what we need from this agreement will be to ensure that India also gets what it needs from this agreement, and this will be the difficult process ahead of us to try and make sure that these sometimes conflicting requests are reconciled. And so it's going to be very much about squaring the circle. And we have one year to to do that.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations
- “As I said, there was a second positive second meeting of the Trade and Technology Council. There were several groups. There are three groups in the Eu-india Trade and Technology Council, one on digital technologies, one on sort of green cooperation and one on trade. I'm only familiar with what's been discussed on on trade, of course, and this is Inter. So I must say we'll have to come back to you more concretely on the specific projects that you asked in the areas of green and digital. On trade, we took note of good progress in the area of FDI screening. We exchanged non-papers in the area of the resilience of our respective value chains. We did discuss Mr. Lang. We did discuss WTO cooperation, and we pushed India very strongly on things like Plurilateral cooperation, but also discussing how to rescue the multilateral trading system, which is under strain. We are strong advocates of the Mpia as a potential fallback solution for ensuring that the enforceability of WTO rules is being maintained. At the same time, you know, again here, these are issues, areas where India has very strong views and and is is very much opposed to what we are suggesting for the multilateral trading system. So we are taking this conversation forward. We have a senior officials level dialogue on on this to continue advancing and trying to cooperate towards the next WTO ministerial conference, which will take place in Africa.”
EU-India relations · EU policy on screening foreign investment in strategic sectors and critical infrastructure
- “Now, Mr. Hansen also asked whether I had felt some changes on the Indian side since the announcement made at the political level. Yes, I have. There is obviously, as I said, A very high level of commitment from Minister Goyal. Also from my counterpart, we are now very actively engaging, exchanging on all the all the issues. The risk with such ambitious timelines is, however, that both sides have the temptation to tell the other, well, now, if we want to conclude in time, the only possibility is that you agree with all my proposals. And certainly I have the feeling that this is where India sometimes is. Now, to be honest, I'm sure that my Indian counterparts would think that this is what characterizes the EU. We need to be we need to be honest about that impact of the US announcement. I think that has had an impact on on our own relations. I think it's not completely by chance that the timeline that is now being envisaged coincides more or less with the announcement of a of a multi-sectoral trade agreement between the in the US and India. By the fall I trust my my US counterparts hope that when they talk about the fall, they talk about the 20th of December and not the 22nd of September, because otherwise I wish them.”
EU-India relations · EU-US trade relations
- “Um, Mr. Hanson, I think, underlined the the room for growth and came with a few statistics. There is one statistic that is a bit simplistic, but that is very telling, and this is the one I like to use to underline the potential benefit that there is in an agreement between the EU and India. India today represents 18% of world population, more or less. It is stagnating at 2% in terms of its share in world trade, but also in its share in EU trade. And we feel that this is not because of our own doing. It is not because there is an international plot against China or against India. Apologies. It is because India has historically pursued trade policies that were inward looking. It was the champion of import substitution for decades, and this approach has led to a situation today where India is a high tariff economy, where India is a country that wants to continue maintaining policy space with a view to discriminate against foreign economic operators. The Make in India initiative is a very good illustration of this in concrete terms in the area of public procurement. And so in our view, there would be a tremendous potential for India to grow its economy and integrate into international value chain by by gradually liberalizing its economy, liberalizing its trade policy, and using the EU FTA as a transformative force for the modernization of its of its economy.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations · "Buy European" provisions
- “I wish them good luck. But obviously this is something that we are watching closely. Also, the negotiations between India and the UK, because we certainly wouldn't want to present this House your committee, but the European Parliament at large, with an agreement that would be suboptimal compared to what India is going to be ready to offer, either to the UK or to or to the US. Now, of course, India's relations with the US is perhaps, uh, you know, at a higher level than with the EU in terms of strategic and military cooperation for, for instance. But but trade wise, I don't see why we would accept any kind of discrimination in this regard. Martin, you asked whether I had a new negotiating mandate from my president. I don't because it's not my president. That gives me my my negotiating guidelines. These are, you know, very detailed, um, advices or guidelines that are being adopted by the council, which is why I had indicated in my introduction, we are now entering into a very active process of negotiations inside, within the European Union, because we're going to have to agree on on a potentially recalibrated approach with member states. But as I had also underlined, we plan to do that fully in, in transparency with, with the European Parliament. Thank you very much. And I'll perhaps let you, um, respond to the rest.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations · EU-UK relations
- “Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And good morning, everyone. Uh, we're very happy to be here to have an opportunity to exchange on on India. Indeed, last time we had such an exchange was in March, and since then, we've already had three, three rounds of negotiations and several encounters at, at ministerial level. And as you said, Commissioner, uh, together with Commissioner Hansen, traveled to to New Delhi two weeks ago to meet Minister Goyal. So the pace of discussions has indeed intensified at all levels since we operate under this strict instruction to try and close the talks by the end of the of the year. This priority was also reflected in the recent state of the Union speech by president von der Leyen, but is also replicated or referred to in the Joint Communication on a Strategic Agenda between the EU and India that was released last week by the Commission and the eeaS. Now, um, the last round was was the 13th round and number 13 in in European traditions tend to be sometimes a bit of a difficult number. Um, we would probably benefit from having a meeting from the monitoring group where we could go more into detail. Uh, but I'll, I'll, I'll say a few a few words on on the overall situation here. Of course. So the last round was held between the eighth and the 12th of September in New Delhi.”
EU-India relations
- “I'm referring, for instance, to dairy or sugar. Um, but obviously agriculture does remain a sticking point in the talks regarding non-tariff barriers. We are still pushing to get meaningful commitments, particularly on SPS, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, but also on technical barriers to trade, notably as as regards the Indian system of quality control orders. The famous kucios that that we hear a lot about when we speak to our industry in India and in, in the EU. Now government procurement is also going to be an area that's very, very difficult. If you look at the outcome that was reached between India and the UK in their own bilateral deal. This is not a kind of solution that the European Union would want to to entertain. On rules of origin, we're working on streamlining, um, criterias and the verification procedures for exporters to benefit from the preferences. We want to make sure, of course, that exporters can actually use the preferences under the FTA so that rules of origin and the verification does not become too big a burden for the preferences to be usable. But at the same time, of course, we should avoid circumvention by third countries. Uh, so this is the fine line that we need to to work, and we need to find a solution there.”
Free trade agreements (FTAs) · EU-India relations