India pushes for FTA negotiations with the EU.

Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal arrived in Paris, France, to attend the India-France Business Summit and CEO roundtable. He held bilateral meetings with several CEOs and the French Minister of Foreign Trade, Economic Attraction and Citizenship Abroad, Olivier Becht.

"The ministers discussed priority areas related to the FTA negotiations between India and the EU, including issues related to market access," the ministry said.

Minister Goyal stated that India plans to purchase 2,000 commercial aircraft over the next 10 years and has a great opportunity to manufacture commercial aircraft domestically to meet both domestic and international demand. “With the purchase of Rafale fighter jets and the recent Airbus order, the India-EU partnership has been strengthened,” the Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry clarified.

According to Olivier Becht, the French Minister for Foreign Trade, Economic Incentives and Control of Overseas Citizenship, bilateral trade between India and France reached US$15.1 billion in 2021-2022. Meanwhile, foreign direct investment (FDI) from France into India reached US$10 billion. France is currently one of the leading investors in India.

Earlier, the head of the FTA negotiating team, Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry Nidhi Mani Tripathi, announced that the fourth round of FTA negotiations between India and the EU, held in Brussels (Belgium), had just concluded. The next round of negotiations is scheduled to take place from June 12-16 in New Delhi.

The two sides began negotiating a trade agreement in 2007, but talks stalled in 2013 due to a failure to reach agreement on core issues, including customs duties on automobiles and spirits, as well as travel for professionals.

The EU is currently India's second-largest trading partner after the US, and India is the EU's ninth-largest trading partner, accounting for 2.4% of the EU's total trade. Over the past decade, goods trade between the EU and India has increased by 41%, and services trade by 76%. Bilateral trade reached a record high of $116.36 billion in 2021-2022, with Indian exports to the EU reaching $65 billion. Currently, there are 4,500 EU companies operating in India, contributing to over 1.5 million direct jobs and 5 million indirect jobs in the country.

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