India-EU FTA Negotiation Is Progressing Well: Piyush Goyal

India- European (EU) free trade negotiations (FTA) negotiation is progressing well and Trade and Technology Council (TTC) is helpful as it is supplementing the FTA process, said Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday.

While addressing the media after the first India-EU TTC meeting in Brussels, Belgium, he said that the FTA will make the India-EU relationship the defining partnership of the century.

Goyal said that India is engaging with the EU on the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) as it is not the EU’s intention to create a barrier to trade but to find a way forward towards sustainability as part of collective efforts. 

He stressed that India and the EU are working together to find the right solution to the CBAM issue.

Goyal said that India’s tariffs are very often misconstrued to be very high on most items, raw materials and intermediates but in reality, the duties are very low. 

The minister said that the duties on technological items which are helping the Indian economy grow are very low. 

He said that the actual applied rates of tariffs are lower than the agreed bound rates at World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The Minister praised the creation of TTC as a platform of coordination to address key issues related to trade, trusted technology and security between India and the EU. 

Goyal stated that both India and the EU are open market economies, vibrant democracies and pluralistic societies driven by the common interest of security, prosperity and sustainable development.