'Our endeavour will be that we identify these products, put them in the public domain so that the manufacturers can look at them and give a boost to Make in India.'
India finalised a free trade agreement with the UK, its 16th so far as the country aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investments. The other regions and countries with which India has signed such agreements include the four-nation European bloc EFTA, Japan, Korea and Australia.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has asserted that India has zero tolerance for terrorism and will never give in to nuclear blackmail, emphasizing that New Delhi will deal with Pakistan purely bilaterally. He made these remarks during a joint press conference with his German counterpart in Berlin, where he also highlighted the importance of the strategic partnership between India and Germany, emphasizing the need for a free trade agreement between the two nations.
The talks are being held in Brussels between high-level delegations from India and EU, led by Commerce Secretary G K Pillai and Director General of European Commission Davis O'Sullivan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will leave for Germany on Wednesday on a three-day visit during which he will hold comprehensive talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on key bilateral, international and regional issues including India-EU FTA, Afghanistan and counter-terrorism.
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.
Industry body Assocham on Monday said country's top CEOs are in favour of signing a specialised free trade agreement with the European Union in services.
Days ahead of India-EU annual summit, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Wednesday said a few ends are yet to be stitched for concluding the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two sides.
The European Union may back off from its insistence on including non-trade issues like human rights in the proposed free trade pact with India.
The agreement provides for extensive cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector including in research and development for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, they said.
While the 27-nation bloc is pressing hard for a significant duty cut in automobile sector in the proposed Broad based Trade and Investment Agreement, Indian industry is strongly opposed to such a move.
India was apprehensive because EU was pushing for data exclusivity provisions that would have affected domestic pharma companies.
A senior European Union representative said here on Tuesday that the body would soon change its Customs laws to address the issue of seizures of Indian generic drug shipments while en route for export to other countries.
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.
The talks between the two leaders covered the entire gamut of bilateral ties as well as key regional and global issues, including the Ukraine conflict.
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for the Belgian capital as part of a three-nation tour during which he will attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington and visit.
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