- 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
22-Apr-2013
DNA
India’s passenger vehicle industry is in a tizzy over the import quota proposed in the free trade agreement between India and the European Union.
22-Apr-2013
NewsClick
Newsclick discusses with Biswajit Dhar, Director General of Research and Information System for Developing Countries, the India-EU Free Trade Agreement and its fall-outs.
18-Apr-2013
Hindu Business Line
India wíll not tighten laws on intellectual property or go beyond the global intellectual property agreement, TRIPS, in the free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated with the European Union.
16-Apr-2013
Livemint
Both sides reiterated their positions and scheduled another ministerial meeting in June to review progress in talks
16-Apr-2013
India and the European Union (EU) on Monday opened a new round of trade talks in an attempt to overcome their remaining differences, which have been holding back the signing of a long-awaited free trade agreement ( FTA).
15-Apr-2013
Hindu Business Line
India’s dairy industry, led by the country’s largest milk cooperative that owns the Amul brand, has opposed the proposed India-EU free trade agreement on the ground that it would led to subsidised dairy products from Europe flooding India.
14-Apr-2013
Economic Times
India and EU will hold a crucial meeting on the proposed free trade agreement tomorrow in Brussels to iron out the impediments in concluding of the bilateral pact.
13-Apr-2013
The much-hyped bilateral trade and investment agreement (BTIA) between India and the European Union (EU) would not impact the Indian generic drugs industry or lead to a change in the country’s patent law, João Cravinho, EU ambassador to India, said on Friday.
12-Apr-2013
Indian Express
India and Germany today set a target of concluding the long-awaited India-EU FTA (Free Trade Agreement) this year notwithstanding a number of unresolved issued and BJP’s demand for Parliamentary scrutiny this "highly controversial" move.
11-Apr-2013
Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce Shanta Kumar wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday, asking him to put off signing of the India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) till the committee deliberates on the issues raised before it.
