{"id":43744,"date":"2025-05-20T19:14:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=43744"},"modified":"2025-05-20T19:14:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:44:48","slug":"india-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-05-2025\/india-european-union","title":{"rendered":"India and the European Union (EU)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/International Relations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India and the European Union (EU) chief negotiators have concluded another round of talks on the proposed<strong> free trade agreement (FTA) and agreed to reach a deal in two phases.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Negotiations Overview<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Negotiation Resumption: <\/strong>Talks resumed in June 2022 after an 8-year hiatus (stalled in 2013 due to market access disagreements).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Objective: <\/strong>To finalize a comprehensive trade agreement covering goods, services, investments, and geographical indications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Negotiation Structure: <\/strong>The agreement will be concluded in two phases, following India&#8217;s phased approach used in previous FTAs (e.g., with Australia).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is partly due to the volatile global trade environment, including US tariff actions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the European Commission President agreed to seal the deal <strong>by the end of this year.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Focus Areas<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Market Access:<\/strong> Duty cuts demanded by the EU in automobiles, medical devices, wines, spirits, meat, and poultry.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Services and Investments: <\/strong>The talks focused on areas like market access offers in goods, services, and investment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Regulatory Aspects:<\/strong> Stronger Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) framework.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Agreements on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, customs, government procurement, and sustainability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Potential Benefits<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Increased competitiveness<\/strong> for Indian exports like ready-made garments, pharmaceuticals, steel, petroleum products, and electrical machinery.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Stronger investment protection <\/strong>and clearer dispute settlement mechanisms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Enhanced bilateral cooperation<\/strong> in innovation and sustainable development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>India-EU relations\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Political cooperation:<\/strong> India-EU relations date to the early<strong> 1960s,<\/strong> and a cooperation agreement signed in 1994 took the bilateral relationship beyond trade and economic cooperation.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The first India-EU Summit, in 2000<\/strong>, marked a watershed in the evolution of the relationship.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>At the <strong>5th India-EU Summit at The Hague in 2004<\/strong>, the relationship was upgraded to a <strong>\u2018Strategic Partnership\u2019.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic cooperation :<\/strong> India\u2019s bilateral trade in goods with the<strong> EU was USD 137.41 billion in 2023-24<\/strong>, making it the largest trading partner of India for goods.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>EU is India\u2019s largest trading partner<\/strong> for goods, 17% of India\u2019s exports go to the EU and 9% of EU exports come to India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Other areas of cooperation:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The India-EU Water Partnership (IEWP), <\/strong>established in 2016, aims to enhance technological, scientific, and policy frameworks in water management.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In 2020<\/strong>, there was an <strong>agreement for research and development cooperation<\/strong> in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy between the <strong>European Atomic Energy Community and the Government of India.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India and the EU established the <strong>Trade and Technology Council (TTC)<\/strong> in 2023. The TTC is a forum for the two parties to collaborate on trade, technology, and security. The TTC&#8217;s goals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>European Union<\/strong><br>&#8211; The European Union (EU) is a political and economic alliance of<strong> 27 countries.\u00a0<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Background: <\/strong>The EU traces its roots to the European Coal and Steel Community, which was founded in <strong>1950<\/strong> and had just <strong>six members: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.\u00a0<\/strong><br>1. It became the <strong>European Economic Community in 1957 <\/strong>under the Treaty of Rome and subsequently was renamed the European Community (EC).<br>2. <strong>European Union (EU)<\/strong>, Organization of European countries, formed in <strong>1993 <\/strong>to oversee their economic and political integration.\u00a0<br>3. It was created by the<strong> Maastricht Treaty <\/strong>and ratified by all members of the European Community (EC), out of which the EU developed.<br>&#8211; It promotes democratic values in its member nations and is one of the world&#8217;s most powerful trade blocs.\u00a0<br>&#8211; <strong>20 of the countries share the euro <\/strong>as their official currency.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/economy\/news\/india-eu-conclude-another-round-of-fta-talks-deal-likely-in-two-phases-125051800635_1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>BS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">India and the European Union (EU) chief negotiators have concluded another round of talks on the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) and agreed to reach a deal in two phases.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Negotiations Overview<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Negotiation Resumption: Talks resumed in June 2022 after an 8-year hiatus (stalled in 2013 due to market access disagreements).<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Objective: To finalize a comprehensive trade agreement covering goods, services, investments, and geographical indications.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Negotiation Structure: The agreement will be concluded in two phases, following India&#8217;s phased approach used in previous FTAs (e.g., with Australia).<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left:80px;\">This is partly due to the volatile global trade environment, including US tariff actions.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-05-2025\/india-european-union\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43744"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43764,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43744\/revisions\/43764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}