Porto Summit: towards a trade rapprochement between the EU and India
Photo of New Delhi.
The heads of state and government of the EU (except A. Merkel, M. Rutte and the Maltese Prime Minister) participated in the summit dedicated to Social Europe in Porto.
This meeting will be followed this Saturday, May 8 by a summit with India, a summit for which Narendra Modi was initially scheduled to visit Portugal, but the resurgence of the pandemic in India has transformed this meeting into a partial videoconference.
Sajjad HUSSAIN AFP / File
Text by: Altin Lazaj
7 mins
A virtual summit between the European Union and India will be held this Saturday in Porto, Portugal, the country which holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
The objective of the two powers is to strengthen their economic and strategic ties, and to resume their negotiations on a free trade agreement, suspended since 2013.
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With a population of 1.3 billion and robust growth of almost 6% before the pandemic, India is an important market for the European Union.
Economic relations between these two world powers have only intensified over the past decade.
The numbers prove it;
the European Union has become India's largest trading partner.
According to European Parliament sources, in 2019 the EU accounted for 11.1% of Indian trade, just ahead of China and the United States.
Bilateral trade this same year reached 115 billion dollars.
Almost 4,500 European companies work in India, generating 6 million direct and indirect jobs.
European investments represent 18% of foreign investments, making the EU the leading foreign investor in India.
A stalled free trade treaty
However, Brussels and New Delhi have failed to secure a free trade agreement so far.
The two partners have divergent positions on certain commercial aspects.
The Asian giant prefers to trade independently and is reluctant to open up its huge domestic market in order to protect its industry and agriculture.
But faced with China's expansionist policies, the two powers seem determined to move forward on this agreement and to come closer.
The planetary economic and geostrategic policy of the Middle Kingdom indeed worries both Brussels and New Delhi.
The very depressed context of the global economy and the pandemic, which
is currently wreaking havoc in India
, only reinforce the will of Europeans and Indians to strengthen their economic and strategic rapprochement.
On the menu of the Euro-Indian summit is the objective of an agreement on the protection of indications of origin, from basmati rice to Roquefort via Darjeeling tea or Parmesan, reports our correspondent in Brussels,
Pierre Benazet.
The search for agreements on investments, digital technology or transport is also on the agenda, but the central point of the discussions is the relaunch of negotiations for a future free trade agreement. Talks had already started quite extensively in 2007 but after more than five years of discussions, negotiations were suspended in 2013. According to the EU, India had at the time set red lines too long for the country. finance, automotive or wine for example. But in the last ten years trade between the EU and India has increased by nearly 72% and the European Union has more than ever the ambition to establish a free trade agreement that could also beat the pawn. to China.The negotiating mandate of the European Commission has not been changed since 2007 and Europeans believe that Narendra Modi's government is now keen to reach an agreement.
♦ What about human rights?
Several NGOs have called on European leaders to put pressure on the Indian government and end its abusive and discriminatory policies against civil society actors.
Among these signatory organizations, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
Since Modi's arrival, we have seen a deterioration of human rights in India ...
Juliette Rousselot, program manager for South Asia at FIDH
Jelena tomic
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