India-EU FTA talks tomorrow in Brussels

India to demand 'Data Secure' status

Even as chief negotiators from India and European Union (EU) are going to meet at Brussels tomorrow to further the ongoing talks for securing a bilateral trade agreement, India is expected to strongly put forward its demand to grant it ‘Data Secure’ status which the EU had not been accepting. The negotiations will take place on March 22-23.

Under services trade negotiations, India has demanded it be recognized as a 'Data Secure' country. Currently, India is not recognized as a data secured nation by the EU. As a result, Indian firms are not able to secure large-scale government contracts.

“This is extremely critical. Without this, actual market access for our professionals cannot be meaningful under services trade. We will ask for a written assurance from the EU recognizing India as a ‘Data Secure’ country,” the official said.

The officials also stated that in the event, the 27-nation bloc does not consider its request, it might “refuse” to sign the deal at all. India had also been unrelenting on its demand as without this status it will not be able secure a credible trade deal for its $100 billion IT industry, which has over 40% clientele in EU.

EU has said that in absence of dedicated data protection laws, it would not be in a position to recognize India as a data secure nation and therefore cannot transfer personal data to India. Indian government had been insisting on obtaining the status from EU through various global forums.

India has said that it has enacted the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules 2011 to implement parts of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008, which the EU finds inadequate.

In 2010, EU had released an analytical report to identify the methodology adopted in securing sensitive personal data in India. Under the report EU had expressed its dissatisfaction and not recommended India to be granted the status.  

During a meeting today with British minister of state, foreign and commonwealth Hugo Swire, commerce and industry and textiles minister Anand Sharma said “both the sides should ‘focus on the big picture and the benefits that will accrue and the positive message that will resonate in the global economy.”

Talks to establish this trade pact is going to enter its sixth year since it started in June 2007. So far fifteen rounds of negotiations have taken place. Last month, EU ambassador to India João Cravinho expressed serious concerns over delay in concluding the talks coupled with the impending general elections, which is slated for around May 2014 as of now.