India keen on a services deal with EU

In the absence of progress on services negotiations in the WTO, India is sending a team of officials to Europe to strike a deal in the services area with the EU under the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement.

"We have scheduled a meeting with the EU on services in the next 10 days," Additional Secretary in the commerce ministry Rahul Khullar said at a Ficci seminar in New Delhi.

He said services are important for the Indian economy and negotiations in this area have remained non-starters.

"In the Doha round, services negotiations has not really taken of due to the logjam on agriculture and industrial goods. Until you end the logjam on agriculture and Non- Agricultural Market Access, nobody will talk on other things," he said. It was ironical that areas like agriculture in which "there was not much to be gained,"

were holding up progress in talks at WTO, Khullar said.

India and the EU have started fast-track negotiations on concluding FTA by the end of this year. The bilateral agreement would not only include trade but also services which are of much significance to India. The global trade in services stands at $3 trillion, of which India accounts for $80 billion.

While India has made inroads into the US services, particularly information technology, not much ground has been gained in the vast European market. New Delhi is seeking liberalisation of trade in services in EU through the bilateral pact.

"Domestic regulations act as a barrier for trade in services and these need to be addressed," he said.

India and the WTO: News and Issues