The EU - looking to strengthen its position in important growth markets.
European Union aiming to sign free trade deal with India by October
March 10, 2010
The European Union aims to sign a free trade agreement with India by October, according to European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht. The 27-country trading bloc is pushing to secure new markets across Asia.
"The deal should be done by the next summit between the EU and India in October," EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht, formerly Belgium's foreign minister, said in New Delhi following a day of talks with India's Trade Minister Anand Sharma.
De Gucht and Sharma "shared the view" that a deal could be done and "we will speed up negotiations," the EU trade official said in comments cited by Associated Press.
India is a vital trading partner for Belgium, and around 80 percent of Belgian exports to the sub-continent are made up of diamonds.
The EU, which regards a free-trade agreement with India as helping to strengthen its presence in fast-growing Asia in general, and India, the world's second most populous nation, in particular, inaugurated talks on a free trade pact three years ago.
The two sides have held eight rounds of negotiations but progress has been difficult to achieve.
The EU, the South Asian nation's biggest trading partner, has been seeking to include global warming, intellectual property rights and child labour policies in the talks.
But India has rejected the inclusion of what it calls "extraneous" non-trade issues.
Trade Commissioner de Gucht believes a deal can be reached on such non-tariff issues as labour and climate change, as well as on market access.
"If it proves necessary, we will have a meeting at the ministerial level to hammer out remaining problems," de Gucht told reporters.
