Right time for talks on India-EU free trade pact: Kher

It is the right time for European Union to resume negotiations for the free trade pact from the point where they were left in 2013, but if EU is "more ambitious", then there might be "some reservations", a top Indian official said today.
"What is the point at which EU will feel satisfied? In our perspective, we have already arrived at that point and EU should (also) feel satisfied. If EU has more ambitions which it believe should be satisfied now, (then) we might have some reservations," Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said here at a Ficci function.
Besides demanding significant duty cuts for exporting automobiles to India, EU wants tax reduction in wines/spirits and dairy products as well as a strong intellectual property regime (IPR) in the country.

On IPR, India has made it clear that it would not go beyond its WTO obligations on the issue.
In May 2013, India and the 28-nation bloc had failed to bridge differences over critical differences including data security and visa liberalisation related matters. After that, no formal round of talks have been held.
"We have not spoken for some time now in a formal sense. Informally, we have been getting messages through public announcements that EU is interested in taking up the process forward. This has been said on our side that we find it very interesting to pursue India-EU BTIA," Kher said.

India has asked for 'data-secure' nation status, a tag which is crucial as it will have a bearing on Indian IT companies wanting market access in the EU market.

India is among the nations not considered as data-secure by the EU. The EU law mandates that European countries doing outsourcing business with countries that are not certified as data secure must follow stringent contractual obligations. This increases operating costs and affects competitiveness.
India and EU are negotiating Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) that will include trade in goods, services and investments since June 2007.
Recently, the European Union sought a political push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restart the stalled talks for the agreement and had expressed readiness to adopt flexibility to iron out differences on crucial issues.

Kher said the textile sector would be one of the major beneficiaries of this agreement among others.
The two-way commerce was USD 101.5 billion in 2013-14.