External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday termed the proposed free trade agreement(FTA) with the European Union (EU) a “game changer” and said Europe and India can bolster each other’s strategic autonomy and reduce dependencies.
Making this assertion here, he also said India is looking forward to a mutually advantageous conclusion to the negotiation process for the free trade pact within a "short planned timeline."
Addressing the Confederation of Indian Industries(CII) India-Europe Business and Sustainability Conclave, Jaishankar also said Europe and India can strengthen each other's strategic autonomy by reducing dependencies, cooperating on critical technologies and ensuring supply-chain restructuring.
"We expect the India-EU FTA will be a game-changer for the India-EU relationship. We look forward to a mutually beneficial, mutually advantageous conclusion to the negotiation process within a reasonably short planned timeline," he said.
In June last year, India and the European Union restarted the negotiations for the long-pending trade and investment agreement after a gap of over eight years. Launched in June 2007, the negotiations for the proposed agreement have witnessed many hurdles as both sides had major differences on crucial issues.
"India's new approach to trade agreements addresses issues of non-tariff and behind-the-border barriers, quality standards and related benchmarks," Jaishankar said.
"With like-minded partners, we have actually demonstrated in recent years a fast-track change in our FTA negotiation processes. FTAs with the UAE and Australia were actually concluded in record time," he said.
Behind-the-border barriers are non-tariff discriminatory trade barriers within a country.
"Europe and India can strengthen each other's strategic autonomy by reducing dependencies; cooperating on critical technologies; and ensuring supply-chain restructuring. The India-EU FTA is, therefore, our very important goal," Jaishankar said.