India will resume its long-stalled free trade agreement (FTA) discussions with the European Union (EU), while at the same time the EU’s move towards tariffs or quotas on steel imports from India would "inter alia" most likely be put on the table for negotiations, Indian government officials said on Wednesday, March 28.
Earlier this week, Indian commerce minister Suresh Prabhu said that, even after 16 rounds of talks, negotiations on the FTA have not moved forward and that fresh talks will resume next month.
The EU has opened investigations into options for the imposition of tariffs or quotas on imported steel. The Indian government officials said that, though the move is in retaliation for tariffs imposed by the US, there are indications that the EU is considering import protection measures against steel imports from major Asian and Southeast Asian countries and that India could well be bracketed in a proposed list.
The Indian officials said that any such move by the EU would have a far greater impact on Indian steel exports than the tariffs imposed by the US considering the fact that India shipped an estimated $4 billion worth of steel products to EU countries compared to about $1 billion worth of steel products per year to the US market.
Hence considering its importance for Indian exports, Indian government negotiators from the commerce ministry will raise the issue of EU steel import protection once the India-EU FTA talks resume next month, the officials added.