Union minister Anurag Singh Thakur on Thursday said India is open for stronger trade and investment with the European Union (EU)
Strategic partnership with Europe adopted for cooperation over next 5 years
The EU officials said an announcement on firming up of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement will be made during the summit on Wednesday
Will convey India's position that key differences on trade, investment can be solved earlier
Among EU nations, the Netherlands has historically been the fourth biggest source of foreign direct investments (FDI) for India, pegged at $29 billion since 2000
The government might offer concessions to the European Union (EU) in a bid to push forward the talks on a proposed trade pact, stuck for four years. A Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) was first mooted in 2007. The 16th and previous formal round of discussion was in 2013. Hurdles remain on issues of tariff reduction and market access in the alcohol and automobile, sectors, prime European exports to India.The prime minister's office is nudging the commerce department to take forward stagnant trade discussion. So, tariff concessions in these areas have been discussed, a senior commerce and industry ministry official said, on condition of anonymity. Chief negotiators from both sides are to meet in mid-November. The stagnancy in talks was made evident during the visit earlier this month by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker; met the prime minister. Despite extensive talks during the 14th India-EU Summit in Delhi on October 6, during which European Council ..