India-EU Free Trade Pact To Be Signed By December : Piyush Goyal

New Delhi : India and the 27-nation European Union will sign the free trade agreement by December and will likely implement the agreement in February-March next year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Sunday. On January 27 this year, India and the EU announced the conclusion of negotiations for the ‘mother of all agreements’.

“Now almost the entire European market will be open to us with almost zero taxes. The EU’s FTA (free trade agreement) will be signed in December and will come into force in February-March,” Goyal said during a meeting with chartered accountants in Mumbai.

He also said that US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will come to India this week to hold trade deal talks with him.

“The whole world is looking at India,” he added.

Under the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, around 93 percent of Indian shipments will benefit from duty-free access to the 27-nation bloc, while imports of luxury cars and wine from the EU will become cheaper.

Taken together, India and the EU account for 25 percent of global GDP and one-third (about $11 trillion) of international trade (about $33 trillion).

He later told reporters that during the G7 Summit in France, the Canadian Prime Minister had expressed his desire to finalize the proposed free trade agreement with India this year.

The two sides held the second round of negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in May.