|
Sarkaritel.com News and
Features
India, EU to seek resolving differences over tariff
Thursday, March 06, 2008
India and the European Union (EU) will this week seek to
resolve nagging differences over tariff and services which
have considerably slowed down negotiations on the proposed
Trade and Investment Agreement (TIA).
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will meet EU Trade Commissioner
Peter Mandelson in London later this week to give a push to
negotiations on the agreement, which were slated to conclude
by the end of this year.
The negotiations were launched in June last year on the
agreement that is intended to give a major boost to trade ties
between the two sides. The decision to launch the agreement
was taken at the India-EU summit in 2006 in Finland.
Differences over public procurement, opening up of services
sector and tariff cuts on industrial goods have been nagging
the talks, raising questions over the timeline would be met.
Both the sides have completed several rounds of negotiations
on the agreement and have covered areas, including goods and
services, government procurement, patent issues and trade
facilities.
EU officials involved in negotiations said progress has been
made on "easy issues" while there has been less progress on
"difficult ones" and noted they are in no rush to conclude the
agreement unless both sides get the best out of the pact.
"We would like to conclude the negotiations as quickly as
possible. But for us substance is more important than speed.
We will not sacrifice quality. We should not put a date till
we get the best out of the negotiations," an official told a
group of Indian journalists visiting here.
The European Union wants elimination of at least 90 per cent
tariff on industrial goods in the next seven years, a
difficult proposition for India, changes in Indian procurement
policy, which New Delhi even refuses to talk about, and
greater market access for non-agricultural products.
India has not yet presented the list of services and goods to
be put in the negative list while the two sides are yet to
begin negotiation on the common agricultural policy (CAP).
The EU, on its part, has come up with a list of 226 products,
mostly chemicals, petrochemicals, plastics, ceramic and
glassware items.
Trade between India and the EU has doubled from USD 28 billion
in 2003 to USD 55 billion in 2007 and the agreement is
expected to boost the trade ties between the two sides. The EU
is India's leading trade partner.
Recent studies showed that India's trade with the 27-member
bloc could touch a whopping USD 572 billion.
Of this, trade in goods could be around USD 251 billion and
trade in services around USD 20 billion, when the agreement is
fully implemented.
India exports agricultural products, clothing, chemicals, iron
and steel to the EU countries and mainly imports transport
equipment and power and non-electric machines.
Though talks have slowed down, EU officials said the
negotiations are leading to a better understanding of each
others' expectations.
They claimed that India has agreed to negotiate on some issues
which it has refused to talk about at the multilateral level.
On common agricultural policy, EU officials expect no major
hurdles as there was no real clash of interest given the fact
that the profile of the each others' produce and nature of
expertise is completely different.
Both the sides are also negotiating agreements on Maritime
Transport and Civil Aviation and expect progress and even
conclusion of one of the agreements before the next India-EU
summit, which could take place by the end of September in
France.
The Maritime Agreement is expected to be a commercial one
giving market access to companies from both sides while the
Civil Aviation pact is aimed at technology sharing.
E-Mail :
newseditor@sarkaritel.com |
