Differences on FTA persist between India, EU

The government of India and the European Union (EU) continue to disagree on multiple points in the ongoing India-European Union free trade agreement (FTA) talks.

While commerce minister Kamal Nath said that the FTA talks are likely to be concluded by 2008, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson maintained that content of the agreement was more important than the timeline. Both Nath and Mandelson were speaking at the India-EU business summit today.

Differences have also cropped up on issues such as including government procurement in the proposed FTA. "We will not include points like government procurement in the talks of India-EU FTA," Nath said at the sidelines of the summit.

However, Mandelson said that issues government procurement, trade facilitation and competition policies are vital for economic growth of the country.

India has also objected to including issues like animal welfare in the FTA talks. "These are extraneous issues." Nath said in his address.

Both the sides have completed three rounds of talks while the fourth one is scheduled to be held in the next two weeks.