EU trade commissioner Sefcovic in Delhi for push on India-EU trade talks

EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic is in New Delhi for two days to advance trade and investment negotiations, as India and the EU work to narrow gaps on key issues

European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is in New Delhi for a two-day visit aimed at advancing talks on the proposed trade and investment agreements. 

With the year-end deadline fast approaching, Šefčovič held a meeting with his counterpart, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. He also met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. “In India for a two-day marathon of meetings with Piyush Goyal to advance our trade and investment negotiations. EU-India ties are growing fast — as they should between partners. But we’ve only scratched the surface. A commercially meaningful FTA would unlock enormous potential,” Šefčovič, who is the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, said on X on Monday. 

A team, led by the European Commission’s Director General for Trade and Economic Security Sabine Weyand, is also in India to iron out differences on issues related to both goods and services. During an official round of talks last month, the commerce department had said that both sides saw ‘substantive progress’ across several negotiating areas and were able to narrow down the divergences. Common understanding arrived on many issues. Despite that, both sides still need to iron out differences in certain areas such as steel, carbon tax, automobiles and non-tariff barriers. 

The proposed deal is in the final stage, where the toughest issues will be taken up. “We are in the last leg of negotiations. The last leg is the most arduous leg of negotiations because these are the toughest things that are decided at the end,” commerce secretary Rajesh Agrawal had said in the past.