India, EU officials may meet in March to clear FTA logjam

New Delhi: India and the European Union are looking to bridge their differences on issues pertaining to rules of origin and government procurement in the next round of the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) talks likely to be scheduled in March in Brussels.

Officials said the 10th round of negotiations next round on the proposed trade deal could be held on March 10-14, 2025 and is likely to cover wider elements.

The ninth round in September was a restricted one held to assess the exact picture of the positions of the two sides.

“We have exchanged our key asks and now their commercial significance is being assessed. The next round will be in the first quarter of next year,” said an official. The two sides are expected to build on the limited progress made on issues such as rules of origin and government procurement, and New Delhi has conveyed to the EU that market access for its goods, services and investment should be the focus areas of the talks. The last round failed to resolve certain issues related to state-owned enterprises, ‘Make in India’ and its application to EU bidders and goods in the negotiations on government procurement.

Moreover, the positions of the two sides on the negotiations on rules of origin, which are key to check FTA circumvention and cheap imports, and technical regulations and conformity assessment were different on some products. “We have seen progress on talks on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, dispute settlement and good regulatory practices,” said another official.

India and the EU relaunched negotiations for an FTA after a nine-year hiatus and started separate negotiations for an Investment Protection Agreement and an Agreement on Geographical Indications in June 2022.

Continuing from the previous rounds, the concerns of Indian stakeholders regarding the EU’s sustainability measures, such as Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, Deforestation Regulation, and others would be taken up again.