India, EU eye headway as free trade agreement talks advance today

INdia and the European unification (EU) testament bear their next labialize of talks on a release trade deal in New Delhi this week, with the focus shifting to more substantial issues such as non-tariff barriers, market access and public procurements as the two sides race to deliver on the target of concluding negotiations by the year-end.The coming weeks will also see a series of engagements between the two sides in New Delhi and Brussels to finalise the strategic agenda and other deliverables to be unveiled at the India-EU Summit to be hosted by the Indian side in the first quarter of 2026, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.The 13th round of talks on the free trade agreement (FTA), set to begin on September 8, will be followed by visits to New Delhi by EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic and agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen to add political drive to the negotiations, the people said, noting that the trade deal has taken on greater significance amid turbulence created by the tariff policies of the US administration.“The tariff wars are creating distortion and everyone is interested in figuring out how we can derisk,” one of the people said, adding that Sefcovic is visiting for talks with trade minister Piyush Goyal to give political drive to the negotiations and ensure they are not bogged down in technicalities.The two sides have so far closed 11 of the 23 chapters or policy areas of the FTA covering intellectual property, customs and trade facilitation, transparency, regulatory practices, mutual administrative assistance, SMEs, sustainable food systems, dispute settlement, competition and subsidies, digital trade, and the anti-fraud clause, and are close to finalising another chapter on capital movement, the people said.They said both the 13th and 14th round of talks, to be held in Brussels from October 8, will focus on more substantial issues such as technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, market access, rules of origin, and public procurements. The two sides have also made progress in evaluating each other’s offers on services and investments, which were exchanged in July, in order to find the right equilibrium. They will also focus on resolving technical issues related to the digital trade chapter, where both sides have reached in-principle agreement.While India’s red lines have been clearly established by keeping items such as rice, sugar and dairy out of the package, the EU side is looking for market access for automobiles and spirits, the people said.The EU side is also willing to look into export of aquaculture goods given the impact of the recent doubling of US tariffs on exports of items such as shrimps, the people said. Last year, India exported shrimps worth about $2.8 billion to the US.The trade talks figured in a phone call on September 4 between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU leaders pushed for concluding the negotiations by the end of the year.At the same time, several engagements between the two sides in the coming weeks and months are expected to drive preparations for the India-EU Summit to be held in 2026. On September 17, EU foreign and security policy chief Kaja Kallas will unveil the bloc’s vision for a new strategic agenda for relations with India. The European Council is expected to endorse this vision before the year-end so that it can be adopted at the summit, the people said.Besides a dialogue on counterterrorism cooperation in Brussels this week, the European Union’s Political and Security Committee will also engage with the Indian side to firm up more strategic cooperation, the people said.External affairs minister S Jaishankar is set to participate in the Indo-Pacific Forum in Brussels during November 9-10, and this will be followed by a ministerial meeting of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC), dates for which are yet to be decided, they said. The TTC is the highest body overseeing cooperation in areas such as AI, quantum computing, biotech, security and defence.