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IN MEDIA – JANUARY 2008
In
Media Archive...
India-EU trade pact
hangs on non-tariff barriers
The Financial Express,
January 30, 2008
The European Union’s (EU)
reluctance to make its safety and health
measures of farm products more friendly to
Indian exports and the Union’s efforts to
evade discussions on a mutual recognition pact
on professional qualifications, have now
become major sticking points in the talks on
the proposed India-EU free trade agreement (FTA).
Noting that EU’s food safety as well as animal
and plant health measures—known as sanitary
and phytosanitary or SPS measures in
international trade parlance—were acting as
non-tariff barriers (NTB) and meant to protect
their domestic industry, additional secretary
in the commerce ministry Rahul Khullar said,
“If there is no movement there, there will be
no deal”. He was speaking at a conference on
Preferential Trade Agreements organised by
CUTS International.
During the visit of EU trade commissioner
Peter Mandelson in November last year,
commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath had
said New Delhi wanted non-trade and extraneous
issues like animal welfare and labour to be
kept out of talks the India-EU FTA. He had
said, “There are NTBs and technical barriers
to trade (placed by the EU). We want to ensure
that some of the NTBs on packaging on
standards are not put in. Even though tariff
may be low in the FTA, products may not be
exported because of (EU’s) packaging and
phytosanitary standards.
The procedures for approval these are things
that need to be sorted out.”
On Tuesday, Khullar pointed out that the EU
had taken a very long time to ink a mutual
recognition agreement (MRA) with Japan and
said the EU negotiators seemed averse to MRAs
and “are ducking the issue with India”. An MRA
is signed for fulfillment of standards or
criteria for the authorisation, licensing or
certification of services suppliers of the
trading partner countries. MRA would result in
the trading partners recognising the education
or experience obtained, requirements met, or
licenses or certifications granted in each
other’s country in those service sectors. An
MRA with the EU would give a huge boost to the
Indian services sector.
This news
item can also be viewed at:
http://www.financialexpress.com/
Free trade pact with
EU stuck over sanitary issues
Business Standard, January 29, 2008
India has
said
t hat issues related to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, which are used
as preventive tests for pests and diseases in
export consignments, must be included in the
negotiations of the free trade agreement (FTA)
being negotiated with the European Union (EU).
“There has been very little movement on SPA
measures. It is big problem in the EU. If
there is no movement on SPS measures, there
will be no deal,” said Rahul Khullar,
additional secretary, department of commerce,
at a seminar organized by by Consumer Unity &
Trust Society (CUTS) International.
According to trade experts, the EU has been a
major user of SPS measures. “The United States
has taken the EU to the dispute settlement
board of the WTO several times over SPS
issues,” said Pradeep Mehta, Director General,
CUTS.
Last
year, during the visit of European Trade
Commissioner Peter Mandelson to India,
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had stressed that
non-tariff barriers should not bother Indian
exporters to the European Union once the FTA
was inked. Nath had expressed concern that
after the FTA was signed, Indian exporters may
face difficulty in meeting SPS standards in
the EU, which in turn would prevent export
growth from India.
Khullar also said that the provisions related
to government procurement could not be
included by India in the FTA negotiation.
“There are constitutional issues, especially
regarded to state level procurement,”
The
India-EU FTA, seek to cover not only goods,
but also services and investments. However,
Khullar said that European Union was adverse
to mutual recognisition agreements (MRAs),
which are needed to recognize professional
degrees of both the sides.
“It
took almost eight years for EU to finalise one
MRAs with Japan.
Both
the sides have completed three rounds of talks
till now while the fourth rounds of talks till
now while the fourth round is scheduled by the
end of February.
Talks on India-EU
trade pact hit roadblocks
Press Trust of India, January 29, 2008
New Delhi:
Negotiations for a trade agreement between
India and EU, which was put on fast track in
November last, has hit roadblocks on the issue
of government procurement.
While India
is willing to agree for a transparency clause
in the proposed agreement, it does not want to
commit on government procurement, Additional
Secretary in the Commerce Ministry Rahul
Khullar said here today. "They (EU) also want
to place on the agenda transparency which is
okay and government procurement which is not
so okay," he said at a CUTS seminar on
Preferential Trade Agreements and India .
Non-trade
barriers are another area of discord between
the two sides. India wants that Sanitary and
Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) measures should not be
used to block trade. But the EU does not seem
to be agreeing with India s contention, he
said. "SPS measures are essentially in place
to protect trade because tariffs have ceased
to be relevant. Those are precisely the areas
where there is very little movement and if
there is no movement there will be no deal,"
Khullar said.
India and
EU had agreed at their annual summit in New
Delhi last year to put the market-enhancing
Trade and Investment Agreement on a fast track
with a deadline of December 31, 2008 for
completion of negotiations.
Describing
the talks on a bilateral trade deal as "the
most challenging", Khullar said the agreement
also has to be in conformity with the rules of
multilateral regime under the World Trade
Organisation. He said there were legal
complications derived from WTO commitments in
Geneva. The two sides have to reconcile what
they "can do in Geneva and what they cannot".
This news item can also be viewed at:
http://finance.indiainfo.com/
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