India Inc to discuss India-EU trade issues

New Delhi, Sept 3: As India gears up for the India-EU Trade and Investment Agreement Negotiations, industry body Ficci will organise a workshop to provide an opportunity to stakeholders to articulate their opinions on September 5, 2007.

''The workshop will be jointly organised by the Department of Commerce, Government of India, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD India Project) and Ficci where stakeholders from Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal would get an opportunity to articulate their interests and concerns on the forthcoming India-EU Trade and Investment Agreement negotiations,'' said Ficci.

India and the European Communities have recently launched negotiations for a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BITA), which would include Free Trade Agreement on goods and services as well as agreements on investment and other areas.

The European Council (EC) and India expect to promote bilateral trade by removing barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across all sectors of the economy, the statement added.

''A comprehensive and ambitious agreement would expand opportunities for the EC and the Indian businesses,'' Ficci said.

As the agreement on trade would be required to be consistent with WTO rules and principles, India is expected to commit to a zero-duty customs regime on substantially all imports from the EC, and similarly all EC member states are expected to commit to the zero-customs duty regime on substantially all imports from India.

''As in other similar trade agreements, both India and the EC would have the flexibility to exclude certain products from the schedule of tariff elimination,'' said the industry body.

To arrive at a list of products where no preferential tariffs would be offered in the India-EC BITA negotiations, ie, the 'sensitive list', both economic analysis and stakeholder consultations are required.

The workshop would bring together representatives of state governments, civil society, consumer organisations, industry representatives, experts and policy makers involved with this field.

Participation is expected from various industries like agricultural products, fish, chemicals and allied products, raw hides and skin, paper and paper board, plastics and rubber, footwear, glass and ceramic products, textiles and clothing, electrical machinery and parts etc.

UNI