The European Union on Wednesday said there would not be any dialogue with India on the World Trade Organisation issues when their political heads meet at the India-EU summit this weekend, even though trade issues will figure in the summit.
India on Tuesday said that the European Union must liberalise its visa regime to allow free flow of businessmen and skilled professionals from the country to the continent and was looking forward to the proposed 'Blue Card' initiative to facilitate hassle-free employment of skilled migrants.
'India, Pakistan and people of Kashmir' should resolve it, the EU said.
India and EU on Monday agreed to resume stalled WTO talks immediately by adopting a flexible approach to narrow the differences on contentious issues like agriculture.
In the clearest indication from the European Commission yet that a resolution to the ongoing dispute between New Delhi and Brussels regarding generic drug seizures had been reached, a senior EC official told reporters on Wednesday that the EU was "open to changing" the offending regulation.
India's real estate market is poised for growth across categories - residential, commercial, and rental. Currently valued at Rs 24 trillion, or about $300 billion, it is projected to surge to $1.3 trillion by 2034, and then grow further to $5.17 trillion by 2047, indicates a report by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (Credai).
The European Union including the United Kingdom has expressed concern over alleged adulteration of Basmati, the world's costliest rice, imported into the region and undertaken its own research to make quality assessments.
The 28-member European Union has temporarily banned the import of Alphonso mangoes, the king of fruits, and four vegetables from India from May 1, sparking protests from the Indian community, lawmakers and traders.
Fifty-two per cent of the Britons in Thursday's vote favoured leaving the 28-member EU, while 48 per cent supported staying in the bloc, according to a BBC forecast after counting of 70 per cent of votes.
Exporters in India are hopeful that the EU would soon lift the ban, which was imposed last month.
India's plan to sell the Advanced Light Helicopter to Myanmar threatens a European Union arms embargo to that country, Amnesty International claimed on Monday.
Opposes Emissions Trading Scheme, which requires carriers flying to or from Europe to offset their carbon emissions
Europe's deepest recession since World War II officially ended on Friday, as data showed the European Union was growing once again, following five straight quarters of contraction.
A day ahead of the G20 Summit, it was not very clear whether a consensus on the text to describe the Ukraine crisis in the joint leaders' declaration was achieved with China appearing to emerge as the main stumbling block to bridge the differences on the contentious issue.
Last week, India lodged a complaint against the EU's measures on PET at the WTO, saying Brussels allegedly violated core provisions of the Agreement on anti-dumping as well as subsidies and countervailing measures. Under the WTO's anti-dumping and anti-subsidy rules, the EU is required to terminate its measures after five years. But Brussels continued to impose them on the ground that the Indian exports could harm the European producers.
The eleventh round of talks between the two sides is scheduled to take place next month at the EU headquarters.
At present, no harmonised set of admission rules and procedures apply across the European Union. EU has some 27 member states and each state has different regimes for work permit application, making the movement of high-skilled and specialised workers of a company within EU cumbersome.
To tackle acute shortage of skilled workers, Germany has agreed to open its labour market for specialists from non-EU countries, including India, by easing the minimum salary requirement to obtain a residence permit.
Despite discounts on Russian crude oil - which fell to the lowest since the Ukraine war began - and the rising sanctions, import volumes from the country will remain stable for now or at least till July, said refinery officials. "There is an appetite for Russian crude, and shipments are not expected to taper off beyond this point unless something major happens. "Talks are on, and buying will continue," an official at a major refinery said.
French hospitality at its best at a state dinner in honour of China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at Elysee Palace, Paris.
According to Indian officials, both the sides have had "fruitful consultations" regarding elimination of tariffs on 90-95 per cent of goods, but the EU's insistence on including non-trade issues, such as child labour, labour laws and climate change, in the trade pact are coming in the way of concluding an agreement.
European Union trade commissioner Pascal Lamy will visit India next month to discuss issues involved in Indo-EU trade relations.
European leaders on Thursday agreed to triple its naval search mission in the Mediterranean, restoring its funding to last year's level. The decision comes four days after up to 900 desperate people drowned trying to reach Europe from Libya.
Returning home after a five-day high-profile state visit to China, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday struck a defiant note saying that his country may be small but 'doesn't give them the license to bully us'.
Indian mango growers are suffering daily and some have been bankrupted.
Around 75 tariff lines or products from Pakistan would get concessional access to European markets for three years.
European regulators have estimated that consumers are paying up to 20 per cent more for medicines in some cases.
Even as the Indian IT industry is studying the fine print of the European Union (EU) to expand the scope of value-added-tax (VAT) from January 1, to include services like back-office operations, call centre work and administrative services delivered from non-EU nations (including India), it does not appear to be unduly perturbed.
"As citizens of the United Kingdom take stock of their relationship with the EU, you should be proud that the EU has helped spread British values and practices - democracy, the rule of law, open markets - across the continent and to its periphery," he wrote.
Perhaps the most important thing that has come out of it is clarity about the extent of private sector involvement in the Greek bail-out programme.
Geopolitical headwinds leading to lower demand from export markets, coupled with lower domestic buying, have dragged the auction average of Darjeeling tea to its lowest level since 2015. Data from Calcutta Tea Traders Association (CTTA) shows that the average price of Darjeeling tea at Kolkata auctions for January-December 2023 was Rs 319.74 per kg. The last time it dipped below this level was in 2015 at Rs 285.71 per kg.
India's merchandise exports dipped marginally in March to $41.69 billion, and by 3.11 per cent during the last fiscal year to $437.06 billion mainly due to continued geopolitical turmoil, and depressed global trade. Imports, too, declined in March as well during the entire 2023-24. Trade deficit, or the gap between imports and exports, narrowed 17.74 per cent in March to $15.6 billion and came down 9.33 per cent to $240.17 billion in FY24.
May confirmed the deadline for triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which sets in place a two-year process of Brexit, as the first quarter of next year.
Opinion polls have suggested that while big business is broadly in favour of staying in the EU, small firms have been evenly split in what looks like a photo-finish.
Much will depend on turnout, with younger Britons seen as more supportive of the European Union than their elders but less likely to vote.
Union minister Smriti Irani reacted furiously to the Congress leader's barb at the prime minister over the Rafale purchase and the tense situation in Manipur.
India will be able to bag extra orders worth $three billion for garment exports from the European Union, if the country enters into a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, apparel exports body said on Monday.
