 "EU, European Union")
India on Wednesday said it is concerned about the European Union's announcement of imposing carbon tax, saying such measures require New Delhi to recalibrate its approach towards a free trade agreement.
In January last year, India and the EU resumed negotiations for a free trade agreement, investment protection and Geographical Indications (GI).
"Apart from the sustainability and all other issues, we are also a bit, I would not say perturbed but we are feeling little challenged with the announcement of CBAM recently and it is going to cover 5-6 sectors which are key to Indian industry and supply chains," Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Nidhi Mani Tripathi said.
The EU is introducing the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from October 1 this year. CBAM will translate into a 20-35 per cent tax on select imports into the EU starting January 1, 2026.
Speaking at an event organised by industry body CII, she said there is also another regulation which is to come up -- Green Deal -- where the EU is talking about deforestation related measures on couple of sectors.
Such measures that keep coming up, "also require us to recalibrate our FTA (Free Trade Agreement) approach," Tripathi said.
More From This Section
She is India's chief negotiator for trade agreement with the EU and the UK.
"A number of studies are conducted when you start a FTA negotiation... but all your assessment go haywire when you keep getting such new regulations with such new difficult measures," she said.
According to her, both sides need to negotiate the agreement with a pragmatic approach and "we should not let the moment go and this is the right moment for both the sides to tap this opportunity".
India is going to provide a huge market to the EU businesses, she said.
"I have been saying all along that the approach that the EU has followed in all its previous FTAs may not exactly be the same with India and India comes with an unique opportunity.
"India comes to the table with sincerity and commitment to a trade deal which is fair and reciprocal in its nature," she said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
