India, EU may go in for partial free trade pact

A day ahead of Prime Minister headed panel taking up the long-pending India-EU free trade agreement, the two sides today indicated they may open their markets in a gradual way instead of signing a full-fledged pact in the wake of differences on several key issues.

"We have proposed the principle of incremental approach so that what may not happen now can be included later. But what we have on the table from both the sides...it is fairly robust. We will now leave it to negotiators to bring it to its early conclusion," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said.

He was talking to reporters after reviewing the progress of negotiations on the India-EU FTA, with visiting German Minister of Economic and Technology Phillipp Roesler here.

The Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet tomorrow to review the progress of negotiations of the pact.

Sharma said the two sides will have a ministerial meeting either in December or January. "That time, hopefully we will announce the conclusion of the negotiations," he added.

Roesler said the agreement is important for economies of India, Germany and Europe. "India and EU are very keen to conclude this agreement on time," he said.

The two sides have not been able to reach consensus on the agreement which has remained under negotiations since June 2007.

The negotiations for a free trade agreement, officially described as Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), have missed several deadlines.

India has been seeking a single visa for its professionals on short-term contractual visits to the European
Union. On the other hand, the 27-nation bloc has been asking for significant reduction in customs duty on cars,wines and spirits on their exports to India.

The two sides also have differences on inclusion of intellectual property rights (IPR) and data security in the
agreement. The EU wants India to commit on IPR over and above the WTO obligations.

Sharma said chief negotiators of India and EU are meeting on the agreement at Brussels on November 8.

The country and its largest trading partner EU aim to slash duties on over 90 per cent of the trade under the pact.

The two-way trade between India and EU increased to USD 110.26 billion in 2011 from USD 83.37 billion in 2010.