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India is ready to work with the European Union (EU) to sort out “issues of concern’’ related to the proposed bilateral free trade agreement.
“The EU Trade Commissioner, in her letter, has said that the bloc does not have any pre-conditions, but would want some issues to be sorted out. We want to work together with the EU. We want the agreement (the proposed free trade pact) signed,” Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during her address to the media on the two-year achievements of the NDA government on Monday.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom’s letter is in response to Sitharaman’s letter seeking a meeting of chief negotiators to resume the trade talks. No date, however, has been fixed for the meeting, Sitharaman said, adding that one has to keep in mind that the bloc may be waiting to see what happens at the Brexit referendum (polling for exit of Britain from the EU) in June.
The EU wants India to give some commitments on lowering of import duties on automobiles before the BTIA negotiations restart. While India agreed that a working group be formed to look at the issue, it wants commitments on tariff cuts to be part of the negotiating process.
The EU wants India to commit to sharp cuts in import duties on automobiles, currently ranging between 60 per cent and 120 per cent, as opposed to 10 per cent duties levied by the bloc.
Sitharaman added that Australia, too, was also going through an election process that might have slowed down the talks for a bilateral FTA with India.
Pharma paymentsOn payment problems being faced by the Indian pharmaceutical sector in Venezuela, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said that the Commerce Ministry was in talks with the RBI to see if an appropriate mechanism could be devised to see that the payments are in some sense protected.
In Sudan and Nigeria, too, Indian pharmaceutical exporters were facing payments issue, she said.
When asked about the agreement between India and Indonesia on non-basmati rice trade, Teaotia said STC and its Indonesian counterpart were about to conclude an agreement on imports.
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