The European Union has not yet proposed to India any date to restart the stalled negotiation for a free trade agreement, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Responding to a supplementary query during Question Hour, Sitharaman said that India-EU negotiations for a Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement had been moving slowly. She said that India was keen to speed up the negotiations, but the EU had not yet proposed dates for holding the next round of talks on the issue.
India and EU earlier this year discussed the possibility of an early restart of negotiations on a Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement, which remained stalled since 2013 due to differences over certain issues, including improved market access for some goods and services, government procurement, geographical indications, investment protection rules and sustainable development.
The EU is one of India’s largest trading partners with bilateral trade in goods reaching the US $ 85 billion in 2016.
(Published 24 July 2017, 13:29 IST)
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