India and EU comprehensive free trade deal to be finalised by 2024

India and the European (EU) Union hope to finalise a comprehensive free trade deal by 2024, EU ambassador to India Ugo Astuto said on Friday.

“The timeline has been set, keeping in mind the next general elections that is expected in 2024 for both India as well as the EU. The trade pact is expected to be finalised before the

elections,” Astuto told reporters.

Negotiations are expected to kick start in June, after the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO’s) 12th ministerial meeting.

Earlier this month, a team of officials led by Commerce Secretary BVR Subramanyan were in Brussels to set the roadmap for the trade agreement. EU Parliamentarians’ also visited India to further the trade talks.

India and the EU agreed to resume negotiations for balanced and comprehensive free trade and investment agreements in May last year. Formal negotiations between India and EU were stalled eight years ago over differences on a range of issues, as the bloc insisted on cutting import duty on automobiles and wine. The negotiations were launched in 2007.

However, discussions did not gather pace due to challenges related to Covid-19 as well as the EU’s insistence on inclusion of issues such as environment and labour as a part of free trade agreements. Sources said India and the EU are on the same page on inclusion of such issues in the trade deal. The EU is India’s third most important trade partner and one its main investor.

Earlier this week, India and the EU agreed to establish a ‘Trade and Technology Council’, a strategic mechanism to tackle the challenges at the nexus of trade, trusted technology and security, that may deepen their strategic relationship.