Days after concluding FTA negotiations with the European Union, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal told The Indian Express countries across the world are looking at the future potential when talking trade with India. Excerpts:
The deal had nothing to do with the visit. It was a happy coincidence we could conclude it. In principle, both sides had decided not to work with a deadline or pressure on us… it had to be a win-win deal for both. There were a few issues pending towards the last few weeks. I went to Brussels on January 6-8 or thereabouts. We had a hiatus during the (Lok Sabha) election; they also had a change. This had changed by the time Maros Sefcovic (the current European Union Trade Commissioner) came in December 2024. Since then, we’ve been relentlessly on it. And while appointing Sefcovic, they actually told us we had put our best man on the job who can get you over the finishing line.
In this deal, how much was geopolitics a factor since the EU probably felt being pushed to a corner because of what had happened with the US. And India too, given how things unfolded for it.
We had launched the talks in 2021, started discussions in 2022… They brought in Sefcovic in December 2024 and told us he was their best man on the job to conclude fast. That time there was no geopolitical impact. So this has nothing to do with geopolitics… They are all seeing a $30 trillion economy. Look at the delta of opportunity… from $4 trillion to $30 trillion in 23 years. Who would like to miss out on it? Also, we are a trusted geography, a trusted partner…
They (also) desperately want us to take their technologies, convert them into scale of manufacturing, and they say, we are looking at India as a base for Africa, for Asia, maybe even Latin America, they are very clear about it.
One issue that was of concern to New Delhi was the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. How has it been tackled?
In the spirit of being practical, pragmatic, and ensuring we are protected from any discrimination, we have a forward-MFN (Most Favoured Nation) i.e., any concessions they give to anybody, we get that. There’s already a simplification process which they presented to me when I was in Brussels before the January 6-8 trip. Valdis Dombrovskis, the former (EU) trade commissioner, is now in charge of simplifying all these regulations. He promised when we met in Paris to make a presentation during my visit to Brussels, which he did four months ago. There’s a huge demand from their industry also to deregulate and simplify. In fact, you might have heard about the (Mario) Draghi report… We get the benefit of all that. They’ve agreed that any carbon taxes paid here will be recognised. They’ve agreed to have verifiers in India, so people don’t have to get foreigners all the way spending money to verify their carbon footprint. They’ve also agreed on a rapid response mechanism, where if anybody has any difficulty, then our team will help resolve those difficulties…
Plus, the European Union is very appreciative of the good work India has done. Amongst the G20, we are in the top three in terms of fulfilling our contributions. For example, in renewable energy, we have fulfilled it eight years ahead of schedule. And now the PM has set a target of 500 GW… far beyond anybody’s imagination. So they have announced their commitment to support our decarbonisation efforts in a big way through a joint fund. 500 million euros they’ve already announced. That is just the beginning.
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What about some of the other contentious issues such as GI (Geographical Indication) products or Intellectual Property Rights, etc, for the Europeans?
There is no contention on IPR. I have not had one meeting on IPR. At the official level, they settled it. I have not had one conversation on IPR, because we’ve done it with Switzerland and the UK. They are the ones who are more difficult. The EU had nothing in IPR that they had a problem with. GI is pending. GI is not covered in the present IPR chapter, there’d be a separate agreement… We’ll do it afterwards. GI, etc, these are operational issues, and not (really) contentious.
The reason why we’re asking you is, in 2013, when the (India-EU FTA) talks got stalled, GI and IPR were perhaps contentious issues alongside car and car parts…
EU does not have any issue with IPR. We settled IPR issues with Switzerland and the UK. They are the difficult ones. In fact, the previous government didn’t want to open up spirits. Now, what’s the harm to India from spirits coming from the EU? Guess how many farmers make grapes for wines? 6,000, that’s all. What is the production of wine in India, in terms of value? About Rs 1,000 crore. More than that, I’ve got duty free access in Europe for table grapes. I’ve got 85,000 tonnes of table grapes, duty free access in the FTA, which is worth more than Rs 1,000 crore. And by the way, our wines are liked internationally. So there is a great export potential, which has opened up for us — duty free. We are bigger exporters than importers. And even if they come, consumers will have choice, our quality will improve. And here too, we’ve kept a benchmark, nothing below $3 will get a concession.
And this is the first deal where the EU has agreed to a quota…
Yes… it is the first deal they’ve done without dairy… Australia did without dairy, New Zealand did without dairy, Switzerland also… All sensitive items are out. No cereals, no GM products, no dairy, no rice, wheat, no soya, no corn.
How did you manage to keep government procurement out? Because (with) the UK, you did allow it.
See, with the UK, there is significant government procurement. I told the EU that, look, you want government procurement, you get me a commitment from all the 27 (member) states that they’ll allow government procurement. They said, Oh! That’s the competence of the European states. I said, why do I give you my government procurement. (Reciprocity), that’s a principle of this government.
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See, the export of motor vehicles is $9 billion, import is just $921 million. In other words, we export 10 times as compared to (what we) import. Should this country be scared of auto sector imports?
China is still a large percentage of European imports, say 10-12%, India is only about 2%. You see a narrowing of this gap?
We’ll have to see what they do, but (it’s) quite possible.
We have to see how quickly our industry ramps up. Our industry has to create capacities, ramp up production, and ramp up quality. The Prime Minister has been driving home
the point of quality from 2014 onwards.
