India and the European Union (EU) are commencing a third round of negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) on Monday, with the talks scheduled to continue until December 9, a government official said today, Monday, November 28.
The protracted FTA talks between India and the EU were first initiated in 2007 and continued until 2013 before they hit a roadblock on several trade issues on tariffs and movement of trained manpower between the two regions.
In May 2021, India and the EU decided to resume the trade negotiations from the point where they were left off in 2013, the government official said.
Following this, the first round of talks was held in June 2022 and officials of the two regions are meeting again today to push for an early consensus on a agreement framework.
However, the official said that no timeline has been set by either party for concluding talks or for the final signing of an agreement.
India-EU bilateral trade was an estimated $116.36 billion in 2021-22, up 43 percent year on year.