India and EU are negotiating a free trade and investment agreement aimed at phasing out and eliminating import duties on a large number of trade items.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who has been engaged in tough bargains at the multilateral platform with EU and US, said on Monday, "I do not think it (FTA with EU) is a difficult agreement..."
"We have no divergence on agriculture and no offensive interest in industrial goods," Nath said at a CII meeting with Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Vayrynen
in New Delhi.
Nath said India and EU, with a trade of $50 billion, "can do much more through a bilateral agreement than multi-laterally."
While India valued a rule-based trading system, bilateral agreements only complemented the multilateral arrangement, he added.
"Economic engagement is increasing with the world. Rule-based multilateral agreement is complemented by bilateral trading agreements," Nath said.
He said India's external engagement, which is pegged at $450 billion, will double in the next six years. FDI inflows are expected to be $30 billion this year against $20 billion last year.
"Our foreign trade constitutes 33 per cent of our GDP, which is a testimony to India's growing integration in the global economy," he said.
