India, Netherlands support efforts for resumption of stalled FTA talks

India and the Netherlands today made a case for resumption of negotiations for the long-stalled proposed free trade agreement with European Union (EU).

The negotiations for EU-India Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA)have been held up since May 2013 and both the sides are yet to bridge substantial gaps on crucial issues.

India and the Netherlands "expressed support to the efforts of both sides to re-engage actively towards timely re-launching of negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial EU-India BTIA, and agreed to explore opportunities for further cooperation that will be generated by the next EU-India Summit," a joint statement said.

The Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte is here on a two-day visit.

Since June 2007, India and the EU have completed 16 rounds of talks and five stock-taking meetings on the proposed pact, officially dubbed as BTIA.

The negotiations have witnessed many hurdles with both sides having major differences on key issues like intellectual property rights, duty cut in automobile and spirits and liberal visa regime.

The joint statement, issued after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rutte, said that both the sides agreed that India and the EU should deepen their cooperation on multilateral and security issues, as well as on economic, trade and climate change issues.

The two leaders also called for investments in physical, digital and social infrastructure to enable the current and future generations to have a purposeful life.

Later speaking at an event, Rutte said the two leaders discussed the key issues of terrorism and cyber security and pitched for joint efforts between India and the EU to counter terrorism and violent extremism, observing that these threaten Europe as much as India.

He also supported India's bid for a permanent seat on the expanded UN Security Council.

India the obvious candidate for a permanent seat in an expanded Council. "In fact, it is incredible in this day and age that India isn't yet a permanent member," he said.

Rutte said more needs to be done by India on the ease of doing business front, even as he applauded the country's jump in the World Bank's ease of doing business index rankings.

"They (Dutch) business community are telling me that it is still difficult to set up a branch of your company within another state in India can a lot of time. Generally the red tape, to get due permissions," he said.

Besides, Rutte observed that India is still largely absent from the strategic agenda of the EU and its member states, terming it a big mistake.

He applauded India's increasing leadership on climate change, adding however, that both countries' need to make use of each other's knowledge in areas like waste water treatment, bio-diversity and renewable energy.

Meanwhile, the joint statement underlined the opportunities for intensive Indo-Dutch collaborations under India's flagship initiatives such as Make in India and StartUp India.

In the field of agriculture, India invited the Dutch side to explore the feasibility of assisting in setting up Food Valleys and invest in cold chain as well as food processing facilities and undertake capacity building programs in India.

The bilateral trade between the countries increased to USD 6.96 billion in 2016-17 from 6.6 billion in the previous fiscal.