Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India is willing to proceed with negotiations under India- European Union (EU) Broad based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) and is awaiting confirmation from the EU side to resume the negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA). The free trade pact is aimed at reducing or significantly eliminating tariffs on goods, facilitating trade in services and boosting investments between the two sides.
The negotiations for the proposed BTIA have witnessed many hurdles with both sides having major differences on crucial issues. The talk was started in June 2007 and so far 16 rounds of negotiations have been held. Due to some outstanding issue, EU withdrew from the negotiations in 2013. The negotiations were expected in August, but they were deferred by India, expressing disappointment and concern over the EU banning sale of around 700 pharma products, clinically tested by GVK Biosciences.
India wants data security status, relaxations in movement of professionals, real market access in terms of sanitary and phytosanitary (norms related with plants and animals); and technical barriers to trade measures adopted in EU. While, EU wants tax reduction in wines and spirits and dairy products and a strong intellectual property regime; besides demanding significant duty cuts in automobiles.