India and the European Union (EU) have commenced negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) after a gap of eight years, an Indian government official said on Monday, June 20.
The official said that India’s minister of commerce, Piyush Goyal, and the EU trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, started the trade talks in Brussels targeting a “quick and comprehensive FTA” by the target date of 2024.
India-EU commercial trade was estimated at $116.36 billion in 2021-22 notching an annual growth rate of 43.5 percent, with India exports to the EU rising by 57 percent during the fiscal year, with a trade surplus of $65 billion.