EU and India agree to restart trade talks at 'landmark' summit

Ursula von der Leyen hailed the decision to restart trade talks after an eight-year break as a landmark moment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called upon the European Union’s leaders to support the proposal for a temporary patent waiver on anti-Covid-19 drugs and vaccines, even as India and the 27-nation-bloc agreed to relaunch negotiation for the Free Trade Agreement after a gap of eight years.

Modi and the leaders of the 27 EU nations had a virtual meeting and agreed to resume negotiations for “a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement, which would respond to the current challenges”. They also agreed to launch parallel negotiations on separate agreements for protection of investments and geographical indications.

Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the Presidents of the European Commission and European Council respectively, also attended the summit, which was held on the sideline of a social summit, which was convened and hosted by Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

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The EU has been opposing the proposal mooted by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a temporary waiver from the Intellectual Property Rights protection on the anti-Covid-19 drugs and vaccines. Notwithstanding President Joe Biden’s administration’s recent decision to reverse the US stand and support the proposal for the waiver at the WTO, the European Council’s President earlier on Saturday said that the waiver was not a “magic bullet” that could ensure “equitable, affordable and timely access” for all to the antidote against the virus.

Modi, however, called upon the EU leaders during the virtual meeting to support the proposal for the IPR protection waiver on the drugs and the vaccines required to contain the pandemic caused by Covid-19. Michel and von der Leyen later said that the EU was willing to discuss any concrete proposal at the WTO.

The negotiation between India and the EU for a trade and investment agreement went on for six years before hitting an impasse in 2013. As the two sides failed to reconcile differences over market access for some goods and services, government procurement, geographical indications, and investment protection rules, the negotiation remained suspended over the past eight years.

The Prime Minister and his counterparts in the EU nations on Saturday agreed to split the negotiations to run on three different tracks. Apart from restarting stalled negotiations for an agreement on trade in goods and services, they also decided to start talks for a stand-alone investment protection treaty as well as a separate pact on geographical indications, which could be concluded separately or integrated into the trade agreement, according to the joint statement issued by the two sides after the virtual meeting.

The EU was India’s largest trading partner in goods 2019-20, ahead of China and the United States, with total trade close to $90 billion.

Modi and the EU leaders also agreed on a comprehensive and ambitious Connectivity Partnership between India and the 27-nation-bloc. It would cover digital, energy, transport and people-to-people connectivity.

It was the first time that the leaders of the 27 EU nations as well as the Presidents of the European Commission and Council had a meeting with the Prime Minister of India.

Modi and Costa wrote a joint article, which was published by news portal Politico on Saturday, just ahead of the virtual meeting. Costa’s ancestors lived in Goa in India. During the virtual meeting on Saturday, he displayed his passport issued by the Portugal Government as well as the Overseas Citizen of India card issued by the Government of India. French President Emmanuel Macron and other EU leaders lauded India for providing drugs during the early days of the pandemic as well as for supplying vaccines to other nations. He said that India did not need to “listen to lectures from anyone” about sharing anti-Covid-19 drugs and vaccines. Modi thanks the EU leaders for the support provided by them to deal with the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.