Essential to remove barriers in EU-India trade
Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal hopeful of working with the European Union on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), possibly starting with a Preferential Trade Agreement for an early harvest to get faster outcomes.
Addressing the Diplomatic and Industry Leadership Session on EU-India Collaborative Economic Growth on 7 Oct 2020, the Minister called for strengthening 3-R approach that the EU and India are using: Re-energise, Re-invent and Re-orient.
“We believe we have to work towards balanced, ambitious and mutually beneficial trade and investment agreements. During the 15th India-EU summit in July 2020, we had adopted the EU-India strategic partnership which will guide our co-operation in the future,” he said.
Removing barriers to trade between Europe and India is essential to move forward, added Goyal.
The EU is India’s largest trading partner block, with about US$105 billion trade in goods in 2019. It is also the 2nd largest destination for Indian exports.
He pointed out that the Indian Information Technology sector continued to serve businesses in Europe, without any interruption during the lockdown to battle coronavirus.
“We met all our international obligations and, therefore, India is looked upon as a trusted partner of the EU. India can be the trusted partner to move away from single-source supply chains and countries can work in partnership with India for robust & sustainable global supply chains.”
As the economy is being reopened, India is rapidly turning around. The goods and merchandise sector has grown by 5.27% in September 2020 in the corresponding month of last year.
The Government has embarked on a series of reforms in Agriculture, labour, defence, space technology, mining, energy among other sectors, he added. #exports #FTA #investment #manufacturing #economy /fiinews.com
