According to a source on the Indian side, New Delhi and Brussels have agreed to eliminate tariffs on 90 percent of all tradable goods. But, India wants the EU to up their offer to include 95 percent of goods, while the EU wants India to offer a slash in tariffs on 98 percent of goods.
On Monday, the EU had temporarily banned imports of Alphonso mangoes, the king of fruits, and four vegetables from India from May 1.
The European Parliament has urged India and Pakistan to resume dialogue in pursuit of a peaceful solution in Kashmir, while urging for 'normalcy' in the region.
A healthy growth in India's services segments has helped the country's total exports and imports of goods and services to cross the $800 billion mark during the first half of 2023, despite a slowdown in global demand, think tank GTRI said in a report on Monday. According to the analysis of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), exports of goods and services rose by 1.5 per cent to $385.4 billion during January-June this year, as against $379.5 billion in January-June 2022. Imports, however, dipped by 5.9 per cent to $415.5 billion during the six months of this year, as against $441.7 billion in January-June 2022.
India on Thursday raised the contentious issue of higher GSP concessions to Pakistan with the visiting EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.\n\n\n\n
India was apprehensive because EU was pushing for data exclusivity provisions that would have affected domestic pharma companies.
But the EU would like New Delhi to first fulfil certain 'necessary preconditions.'
Most of India's oil supplies are expected to stay safe because of the country's good relations with both Russia and Iran. That would take care of over a third of India's supplies.
The Indian government is keen to woo major semiconductor players, but a global race to attract them to countries where there is already an ecosystem is making it difficult for India to attract the biggies in the business. On Wednesday the government decided to throw open the doors to more players to participate in its semiconductor scheme. It is now looking at not only 28 nanometre (nm) chips and below, but higher nodes like 40 nm.
India is giving priority to boost trade with European Union and foresees no difficulty in signing a free trade and investment agreement with EU, notwithstanding wide differences between the two sides in the WTO over the Doha Round of trade talks. 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.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) is set to acquire Haleon's global portfolio of consumer healthcare brands in the nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) category outside of the US. DRL will pay a total consideration of 500 million, including an upfront cash consideration of 458 million and contingent cash payments up to 42 million based on performances in CY25 and CY26. DRL will acquire the portfolio through the purchase of shares of Northstar Switzerland SARL, a Haleon group firm.
Air India has ordered 470 aircraft to serve the Indian economy and is set to receive a new aircraft every six days over the next 18 months, CEO and MD Campbell Wilson said on Friday. He was speaking at the 67th Assembly of Presidents of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines here. "We have new aircraft, we are recruiting many, many new crew and staff, improving the training regime and there is more work to do and we are making good progress," he said.
John Clancy, spokesperson for the European Commission's trade directorate, told Business Standard this week's talks would focus on 'tariffs and services'.
The Congress on Tuesday stepped up its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party government for allowing European Union MPs to visit Kashmir while denying permission to Indian parliamentarians, and termed it a "national embarrassment".
Today, India is clearly a confident nation at the top of its game; its economic growth is pegged at 7 percent this year, its first aircraft carrier is being built, and a seat on the United Nations Security Council is in the offing.
Polyphonic and pluralistic, as the world's two most populous democracies, India and the European Union are beasts of similar temperament. Yet of all the countries that the EU has a strategic partnership with (there are six in total: the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Russia and India), its relationship with India is by far the least developed.Europe's eyes remain for the main part firmly trained on China.
Another priority in the first 100 days could be the launch of an e-platform -- Trade Connect -- to help exporters connect with stakeholders of international trade.
India is negotiating for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with Malaysia and Japan and a broad based trade and investment agreement with the EU.
Auditing firms in the country could soon run out of business if they do not get themselves verified according to the guidelines mentioned in the Eighth Directive issued by the European Union (EU). EU will recognise balance-sheets of companies audited by firms that fit their specified standards.
The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) on Wednesday held an inter-ministerial meeting with various departments to discuss issues regarding revenue sharing between Big Tech companies and digital news publishers, according to sources. The meeting - chaired by I&B Secretary Sanjay Jaju - invited senior officials from the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), Competition Commission of India (CCI), ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) and departments of promotion of industry and internal trade, legal affairs and consumer affairs.
The EU should eliminate tariffs on 95 per cent of the goods under the Free Trade Agreement instead of the 90 per cent being targeted by the India-EU High Level Trade Group, the industry body said.
Swamy died at the Holy Family Hospital, where he was admitted on May 29, in Mumbai on Monday, a day after he suffered a cardiac arrest and was put on ventilator support.
President Xi is also skipping the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and East Asia summits in Jakarta this week.
Commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal is set to attend a two-day meeting from October 23 at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, that would focus on finding solutions and giving the 'necessary political push' for at least some crucial global trade issues. Next week's meeting comes ahead of the WTO's 13th ministerial conference (MC13), scheduled in Abu Dhabi in February 2024. It will see participation of senior government officials from all WTO member nations.
Capping a visit that attracted controversy and opposition ire, EU parliamentarians visiting Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday termed Article 370 an internal issue of India and said they stand by the country in its fight against terrorism.
The EU's assistance comes as part of its 'strategic partnership' with India and will be made available by the European Investment Bank to ICICI Bank in the first-ever cooperation between the two financial institutions.
European Commission has claimed that its agriculture proposal submitted to the World Trade Organisation is fair and a win-win with sufficient safeguards to protect food security of developing countries including India.
The United Kingdom has voted by 51.9 per cent to 48.1 per cent to leave the European Union after 43 years in an historic referendum.
In 2007, India slashed the additional customs duty it charged on imported (which were up to 150 per cent of value of imports depending on the spirits), but simultaneously hiked the basic customs duties to 150 per cent from 100 per cent.
Falling sugar production in the European countries would provide an excellent opportunity for Indian sugar exports to the European Union market, says a top government official.
India's import of cheap Russian oil scaled another record in May and is now more than the combined oil bought from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE and the US, industry data showed. India took 1.96 million barrels a day from Russia in May, 15 per cent more than the previous high in April, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Russia now makes up for nearly 42 per cent of all crude oil India imported in May.
India assured the EU it would put in place measures to ensure cargoes are free from pests
India's imports of crude oil from Russia touched a new high of 1.64 million barrels per day in March and is now double of the purchases from Iraq - the nation's traditional top oil supplier. But the purchases appear to have plateaued as growth has slowed. Russia continued to be the single largest supplier of crude oil, which is converted into petrol and diesel at refineries, for a sixth straight month by supplying more than one-third of all oil India imported, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
India processes around 90% of the world's supply of rough diamonds.
For trust in democracy to be retained, elections need to be not just free of intervention -- ruling out Pakistan and Russia -- but also demonstrate the capability to both deliver ruling mandates and hold the potential for large swings in favour of the opposition, points out Mihir S Sharma.And, after an election is done, they need to see a mandate in order to go back to their lives and let their representatives get on with the business of government, points out Mihir S Sharma.
India was on Friday guarded in its reaction to European Union farm ministers' 'historic' accord to reform its disputed Common Agricultural Policy.
UK and Sweden have asked the European Union to set up bigger and "more political" embassies in India, China and Pakistan to strengthen its relationships with these Asian countries.
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