News:Latvian foreign minister has said that India-EU trade cannot increase until the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement(BTIA) between the European Union and India is negotiated.
Facts:
About Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement(BTIA):
- Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement(BTIA) is a Free Trade Agreement between India and EU which was initiated in 2007.
- The negotiations on agreement is based on the commitment made by political leaders at the 7th India-EU Summit held in 2006.
- So far, 15 rounds of negotiations have been held alternately at Brussels and New Delhi.The last meeting was held in the week of 13th May, 2013 in New Delhi.
- However,even after a decade of negotiations,India and EU have failed to resolve certain issues which have led to a deadlock in negotiations.
What does European Union wants?
- Reduce taxes on liquor
- Reduce taxes on automobiles
- More market access with less duty interference.
- India should adopt stringent Intellectual property(IP) protection standards.
- To negotiate the Bilateral Investment Treaty before it starts negotiating the EU-India BTIA
- Wants India to liberalise accountancy and legal services.
What India wants?
- Data secure status for a number of services especially in the IT and ITES sectors.
- Free access to European Markets for the textile industry
- Liberalisation of services in Mode 1(cross-border trade) and Mode 4 (presence and movement of natural persons).
