India, EU review trade pact talks ahead of PM' Brussels visit

New Delhi, Nov 29 (PTI) Trade ministers from India and EU
Monday reviewed progress of talks on trade and investment
opening agreement, in the run-up to the bilateral summit to be
attended by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Brussels
next month.

India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma held
"a substantive meeting" with EU Trade Commissioner Karel de
Gucht in Brussels and agreed on a roadmap for early conclusion
of the negotiations of the India-EU Broadbased Investment and
Trade Agreement (BITA).
A joint ministerial statement will be presented to the
leaders at the summit to be held on December 10, Commerce
Ministry said here.
It said the two ministers "expressed satisfaction on
status of ongoing negotiations". However, the Commerce
Ministry statement remained non-committal on any time line for
concluding the negotiations which have been going on since
2007.
It said that Sharma expressed "optimism for early
conclusion with balanced gains for both India and EU."
Both the ministers agreed that BITA would send a strong
message to the global community and would also give an impetus
to the negotiations for a multilateral trade opening agreement
under the much-delayed Doha Round.
Sharma said that Indian economy is ready to absorb much
greater investment flows from Europe in all areas, including
infrastructure, energy, renewables and manufacturing.
On the issue of bilateral trade dispute on Indian generic
drugs being confiscated by some EU members, Gucht assured
Sharma that a solution would be found to India's satisfaction
and "the required statutory changes in European regulations
would be made."
BITA would also liberalise trade in services, an area of
strength for India -- on which it faces hurdles like visa
problems in several EU member nations like Germany and
Britain.
The British government has capped at 21,700, the number
of visas to be issued to skilled workers from India and other
countries outside the EU, starting April, 2011.
The BITA negotiations had hit roadblocks several times as
there was a pressure from some EU members that social issues
like environment and labour standards should be covered in the
agreement. India has been resisting these efforts.
EU is India's largest trading partner and the bilateral
trade in 2009-10 aggregated to USD 75 billion.
India has already implemented free trade agreements with
the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and South
Korea. PTI RK