India-EU FTA will not be inked at Delhi Summit: Envoy
The Hindu Business Line | New Delhi, Jan. 23 2012
India-EU FTA will not be inked at Delhi Summit: Envoy
The India-European Union Free Trade Agreement will not be inked during the summit scheduled to be held here on February 10.
“Very intense negotiations which underline the desire to do as much as before the summit are on going. I would caution (those) that (say) on February 10, we can have an agreement. An agreement in trade negotiation is something that requires a battalion of lawyers on either side to go through the fine print and to say that everything is in place for the principals to put ink on paper and sign their names. That is not going to happen. It is not physically feasible,” the newly appointed EU Ambassador to India, Mr Joao Cravinho, told newspersons here on Monday.
The envoy said what “we would like and what we hope for” is a political agreement on the shape of things so that later on in the year such a signature could actually happen. “That is the essence of matter. Usually when there is political agreement, a lot of technical work still needs to take place, but that is the turning point of negotiations. So, we hope that this will take place on February 10,” Mr Cravinho said.
The agreement being worked on involves goods, services and procurement, and there is likely to be more finality to goods than to services and procurement. Having said that, in trade negotiations nothing is agreed till everything is agreed. Therefore, the final package will have to be agreeable to both sides, he added.
Meanwhile, the EU has expressed “surprise” at the leadership India has taken in garnering global support against the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).
“Given that the Indian fleet, as a whole, is relatively young, its level of pollution is below the world average and below the average of those flying to and from Europe. India and other countries have expressed their strong opposition,” the envoy said.
Mr Cravinho said that the ETS was European Law and changing that was something that basically was not on the table at the moment. “It would involve a very complex legislative process and there is no support for that in Europe. It is non-discriminatory and affects European companies as much as others. There is space in legislation that has not yet been explored regarding exemptions for equivalent measures,” he said.
ashphadnis@thehindu.co.in
