JOIN US“India and the EU are negotiating a FTA that has the capacity to advance the relationship and increase bilateral trade. After seven round of negotiations, the final talks would be held in March. After the next round, the agreement is likely to be finalised by this December,” Head of European Commission Delegation to India Daniele Smadja told reporters here.
She said negotiations would lead to the establishment of a well-developed FTA, which will provide mutual benefits to both parties, adding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso would try to achieve finalising the FTA soon. “We are pretty close to that,” Smadja added.
Stating that India has moved up to the first ten in the list of the EU’s major trading partners, she said once the FTA is finalised, business between the two would rise several fold. According to a report by the EU officials, the region accounts for 20 per cent of India’s total trade.