India relies on German support to accelerate trade talks with the EU

India relies on German support to deepen its relationship with the European Union and accelerate trade talks, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday, when he urged the bilateral trade doubling with Berlin.

Jaisankar met with his colleague in Germany, Johann Wadephul, who was visiting two days to India, in New Delhi, with the two ministers then called for an increase in bilateral trade, including in the field of defense and security.

“We rely on your support to deepen our relationship with the European Union and accelerate FTA negotiations,” he told Wadephul when they started their conversation, referring to the free trade agreement.

Trade negotiations between India and EU – which continued in 2021 after being stopped for eight years – had faced obstacles to the ue pushing to cut import taxes for cars and milk while looking for climate and tighter labor rules about Indian goods.

India wants to protect local farmers, avoid rigid green rules and continue to control legal disputes.

While Jaisankar, spoke to reporters after a Wednesday meeting, said India wanted FTA to reach “the conclusions that determined” in the coming days, the German minister said the agreement could be resolved in the coming months.

“If other people put up trading barriers, then we must respond by lowering it,” said Wadephul.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday that trading officials held talks in Brussels.

Wadephul’s visit came a few days after the US doubled its tariffs on Indian goods, imposing an additional 25% penalty for the purchase of Indian Russian oil, seen by Washington as a financing of the Moscow war effort in Ukraine, above the initial 25% tariff announced in July.

India has sharply criticized both the US and the European Union, saying it was chosen unfairly by them for the purchase of Russian oil when they both traded widely with Moscow despite the war in Ukraine.
Source: Reuters