Still gaps in India-EU free trade pact

Days ahead of India-EU annual summit, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today said a few ends are yet to be stitched for concluding the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two sides.

"We are in advanced stage of negotiations and we hope that we should be in a position to bring it to a closure in near future... We have made substantial progress and few ends or gaps have to be closed," he told reporters on the sidelines of a TERI function here.

Sharma said the progress of India-EU FTA negotiations was reviewed during the recent meeting with EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. Sharma returned from his European tour yesterday.

Sharma would apprise Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue ahead of the India-EU summit scheduled to be held here on February 10.

Though the FTA would not be concluded in the next few days, the two sides are expected to unveil a political agreement during the upcoming summit.

The proposed pact seeks to liberalise trade in goods and services, besides investment.

The negotiations which commenced in 2007 were to conclude in 2011, but differences on the level of opening of the market came in the way of the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), the official name of the FTA.

EU is India's largest trading partner with $91.3 billion trade between the two sides during 2010-11.

On problems of payment to Iran for imports of crude oil due to the US sanctions, Sharma said, "Trade has been healthy between the two countries and whatever is exportable has always been going. There has not been any restriction on Indian companies doing trade of commodities with that country."