EU for huge duty cuts in its FTA with India

While India’s negotiators in the Commerce Ministry have received the necessary mandate from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-headed Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC), they would like to have a trade-off between yielding on automobile sector and gaining extra EU market for Indian agriculture, sources said. India and the EU have been negotiating a comprehensive free trade pact, officially known as Broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), since June 2007. For further discussions on the pact, EU officials are coming to India on Monday.

While several rounds of talks between officials of the two sides have been held, differences remain on the level of market sought from each other in different segments of trade in goods, services and opening of investments.