Next round of talks on EU trade agreement in June, says Piyush Goyal

Discussions with the European Union (EU) regarding a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) are expected to pick up, with Parliamentarians from the trade bloc visiting the national capital to meet Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

Last week, a team of officials led by Commerce Secretary BVR Subramanyan were also in Brussels to work out a framework for a trade agreement.

Goyal said interaction with Parliamentarians was good and the delegation showed a lot of “interest” in the deal. The minister hoped that negotiations will pick up faster. The minister also said India and EU have agreed to work out a full-fledged FTA, rather than proceeding with an interim trade deal.

Commerce secretary BVR Subramanyan said the next round of talks is expected to take place in June, after the World Trade Organisation’s 12th ministerial meeting.

India and the EU agreed to resume negotiations for a balanced and comprehensive free trade and investment agreements in May last year.

Export growth

After surpassing the $400-billion goods export target, India has also met the services export target of $250 billion for the financial year 2021-22, Goyal told reporters, adding that this is the highest value of services export that India has ever achieved.

The minister, however, clarified that the data for services data is provisional and may increase after the central bank released the final data. He further said that the target was met despite Covid-19 related challenges hurting the tourism and hospitality sector.

Imports grew at a faster pace. India’s merchandise import in FY22 grew by a fourth to $60.74 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $18.51 billion. As far as the entire year is concerned, trade deficit widened to $192.24 billion during the financial year 2021-22, as imports hit a record high of $611.89 billion as value of inbound petroleum shipments doubled as compared to a year earlier due to a rise in global crude oil prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war since the end of February. Share of petroleum imports out of India’s total imports was 26 per cent in FY22.  

Rupee-ruble trade

As mentioned in several news reports, there is no official word on a rupee-ruble trade, the commerce secretary clarified. “The RBI has also denied it. All that is being done is the facilitation of the payments for the goods already exported through non-sanctioned banks,” he said.