The Hindu Business Line : Work on to compile list of products for India-EU FTA

Mumbai, Aug. 28 The Department of Commerce, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the textiles committee came together to organise a feedback seminar on the India-EU Trade and Investment Agreement.

Before the second meeting of negotiations takes place between India and the European Union in October, the UNCTAD India team will complete six rounds of workshops in different parts of the country to get feedback from the various industries regarding the products to be included in the Free Trade Agreement and commit to a zero duty customs regime from both sides. The intention of the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement is to remove barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across all sectors of the economy.

The Textile Commissioner, Mr J.N. Singh, said: “60 to 70 per cent of our total textiles and apparel are going to the EU and the US and this agreement with them makes perfect sense for us. Around Rs 80,000 crore have been invested in the sector in the last three to four years and Rs 1,50,000 crore will be invested in the next few years, so I am strongly going to pitch for zero duty in textiles.”

“Both India and the EU can exclude 10 per cent of products from tariff elimination and include them in the ‘sensitive list,’” said Mr Raj Gopal Sharma, Deputy Secretary, Department of Commerce.

The UNCTAD team has identified 203 products to be included in the sensitive list and feedback from the stakeholders is being invited to finalise the list before September 15.

Explaining the methodology of arriving at the list, an UNCTAD Economist Dr Rashmi Banga said, “We used purely statistical method of Revealed Comparative Advantage and Unit Value Analysis to arrive at the list. Where the domestic price is lower than the imported price, we have included it in the list after removing the raw materials. Agricultural products constitute 52 per cent of the list with meat, wheat, dairy products, oil seeds among others making up the rest.”

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