Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement needed between India and the European Union:Edgars Rinkevics

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).