- Negotiations
The European Union and India launched negotiations on a bilateral free trade and investment agreement in June 2007. However, between the governments, a number of controversies have been plaguing the talks. Delhi wants Brussels to relax its stringent food safety criteria which penalise Indian farm and fishery exports and to make it easier for Indian professionals to work in the EU. Europe is primarily out to win major openings of India’s services sector and broad liberalisation of foreign investment, while India does not want to discuss allowing European firms to compete in India’s government procurement market.
Indian social movements, including fisherfolk and labour unions, people living with HIV/AIDS and other health activists have been mobilizing against the FTA. International actions and campaigns have particularly targeted the proposed intellectual property provisions of the agreement, and the impact of the FTA on access to medicines.
last update: May 2012
Photo: MSF
13-Apr-2011
Economic Times
A successful meeting of officials in Brussels last week has narrowed down the differences and raised the chances of a deal being inked by July this year.
12-Apr-2011
FSRN
After four years of talks, India and the European Union are narrowing down their differences on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement that critics in India and elsewhere say could have a devastating impact on public health by hampering access to life-saving drugs for millions of people.
11-Apr-2011
Express
Free-trade agreements with India and Japan could undermine the UK’s automotive industry, which employs 700,000 and accounts for more than 10 per cent of exports, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is warning.
9-Apr-2011
Business Standard
The agreement, if pulled off, is widely seen as a way for the EU to steal a march over its transatlantic cousin, the United States.
8-Apr-2011
Stating that incentives should be given for setting up manufacturing bases in the country, SIAM today said it opposes any lowering of customs duty on fully imported cars in the proposed India-EU free trade agreement.
7-Apr-2011
MSF
As free trade agreement talks between Europe and India resume in Brussels today, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned about new measures Europe is pushing to restrict the production of affordable generic medicines that MSF and others rely on to treat patients across the developing world.
7-Apr-2011
Europolitics
The outcome of this week’s meetings will reveal whether India and the EU can clinch a historic free trade agreement by the summer, Europolitics understands.
6-Apr-2011
PTI
The panel would also clear negotiations for India-Australia FTA and examine setting up a joint study group for a possible free trade pact between India and the Common Market For Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
30-Mar-2011
Business Standard
The government on Tuesday took a firm stand on protection of intellectual property rights and the aspect of data exclusivity for drug manufacturers saying that the country would not extend data exclusivity that would hamper the domestic pharma industry.
29-Mar-2011
India today ruled out sharing test data of drugs, or data exclusivity, of Indian pharma firms with developed countries and multi-national companies, and stressed that the provision will not form part of any free trade agreements pursued by the country.
