Exchange with EU on non-trade issues to be kept out of FTA: India

 India has expressed willingness to share information on non-trade issues with the European Union (EU) but wants the exchange to be kept out of the scope of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) being negotiated with the 27-nation trade bloc.

The sharing of information will facilitate exchange of data on labour and human rights together with animal welfare, issues that have been an irritant in the ongoing trade talks.

“India is willing to share data on non-trade matters but we will not commit to this in the trade treaty. It is not just an issue of human rights but one of transparency and sustainable development which we as a nation are committed to,” said a senior commerce ministry official involved with the issue.

The EU has raised concerns of human rights violations in India and wants this issue to be a part of the market-opening pact, something that India is strictly opposed to.

The official said that India was in the process of studying and understanding the levels of transparency on offer by the EU.

“We demand reciprocal transparency from our trade partner as an answer to India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act,” said the officer.

The RTI Act is opening up gateways of development in India, maintained the commerce ministry official. The Act, passed in 2005, gives citizens of India access to records of the central and state governments.

Another non-trade issue pertains to animal welfare. “This is a non-trade matter on which the levels of imperatives in the two nations are different,” said the officer.

But commerce ministry sources said they did not foresee these issues coming in the way of fast tracking the negotiations on the ambitious FTA.

The talks on this big-ticket treaty covering free trade of goods, services and investment between the two blocks started in 2007. Six rounds of negotiations have since been held, but the two sides have not been able to arrive at a consensus on the level of trade to be covered under the FTA, which will eventually eliminate duties on goods traded.

According to the Department of Commerce, EU is India’s largest trading partner and total bilateral trade stood at over $70 billion in 2008-09.