India-EU FTA may be in jeopardy if April 15 meeting fails
CNBC | Mar 28, 2013
India-EU FTA may be in jeopardy if April 15 meeting fails
After The Bell at 04:00 pm
India’s biggest free trade pact is in a crucial phase. The future of the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and EU will now depend on a meeting between commerce minister Anand Sharma and EU trade commissioner Karl De Gucht at Brussels on April 15.
Last week the negotiators had met up in Brussels to see if remaining issues can be closed, but those issues still remain open. Hence the meeting on April 15 will be extremely important, reports CNBC-TV18’s Rituparna Buyan.
If talks are not concluded on April 15 then the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) could be in jeopardy because India would go into a poll mode and when the general elections get announced sometime later during this year, the talks on the European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will be frozen.
From the European side as well April 15 is crucial because 2014 will be a year when they will be focusing on FTA with United States (US) as well as Japan and they will give less importance to the FTA with India. Hence, it is imperative that the meeting on April 15 is used as an occasion to conclude whatever remaining issues are there in this all important free-trade pact.
Watch news report: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/cnbc-tv18-comments/india-eu-fta-may-bejeopardy-if-april-15-meeting-fails_844102.html
