Free trade agreement with EU is for ambitious India: PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi calls the India-EU FTA a pact for an ambitious India, urging manufacturers to tap duty-free access to 27 European markets

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the free trade pact with the European Union (EU) is for an ambitious India and urged manufacturers to benefit from new markets opening for them. 

Modi also said that the nation is coming out of long-term pending problems and working towards long- term solutions. 

Time has come to find solutions and not create hurdles, he said, adding his government is not confined to just files but ensuring last mile delivery of welfare schemes to the people. “Our priority is always human-centric while taking steps for all-round development of the country,” he told reporters in Parliament House complex in his customary briefing at the beginning of the Budget session. 

 

An India full of confidence has emerged as ray of hope for world, he added. Modi said the free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU is for an ambitious India and urged manufacturers to benefit from new markets opening for them. 

“A new market has opened up. It offers quality products to 27 EU member nations,” he said in an appeal to manufacturers.

India and the EU on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the FTA, described as ‘mother of all deals’, under which 93 per cent of Indian shipments will enjoy duty-free access to the 27-nation bloc, while import of luxury cars and wines from the EU will become less expensive. 

The deal, concluded after negotiations spanning about two decades, will create a market of about 2 billion people across the world’s fourth-largest economy, India, and the second-largest economic bloc, the EU. 

Referring to President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, he said it was an expression of confidence of 140 crore citizens and outlined aspirations of the youth. 

He also noted that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to table her ninth consecutive budget on Sunday and that she is the only woman finance minister in the country to achieve such a significant feat. 

“This is a very glorious chapter of Indian democracy,” he added.