- 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
24-Mar-2010
The Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+) is calling on the EU Trade Commissioner to come clean on the demands and pressures being placed by the European Union on the Government of India to accept TRIPS-plus measures that will have a severe, adverse impact on access to safe, effective and affordable medicines in India and across the developing world.
23-Mar-2010
Commerce minister Anand Sharma said on Monday that a proposed free-trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) would not hurt the generic drugs industry. The minister also said India would attract the same amount of foreign direct investment as last year.
19-Mar-2010
DNA
As informal talks have started between India and Europe on the free trade agreement (FTA) in New Delhi since Monday, apprehensions over provisions that could impact early access to generic medicines are being voiced in Thailand.
18-Mar-2010
CENTAD
CENTAD, in partnership with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, have come out recently with 4 reports on trade and gender. The first is a backgrounder (literature review) while the other three are on the gender impact of the EU-India FTA in the fields of agriculture, services and health.
15-Mar-2010
RTRS
India-EU free-trade pact may limit cheap drugs
12-Mar-2010
Hindu Businessline
India has rejected the European Union’s demand on including social clauses such as labour and environmental standards in the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA), saying there are other forums to discuss these issues.
11-Mar-2010
Delhi Network of Positive People protest the EU-India and all FTAs to MPs in India
5-Mar-2010
AFP
The European Union expects to clinch a free trade pact with India by October, the EU’s trade chief said Thursday, as the 27-member trading bloc pushes to secure new markets across Asia.
23-Feb-2010
ToI
With agreement stalled on a number of issues, including India’s demand for European countries to open up their borders to skilled Indian IT workers in return for European legal professionals to work in India, Britain is pushing for rapid conclusion of a long-delayed free trade agreement between India and the 27-nation Europe Union, saying it was holding up trade and jobs at both ends.
12-Feb-2010
IPS
Secret discussions aimed at pressuring India into dropping all measures that shield its industry from foreign competition have been held between European Union officials and some of the world’s top corporations.
