EU-India FTA negotiations set to resume, US trade talks to follow

The two-day negotiation session will commence on Monday and continue through Tuesday, marking another step forward in the long-standing effort to establish stronger economic ties between the EU and India.

In parallel, India and the United States are also scheduled to hold trade talks in New Delhi starting December 10, a government official said on Saturday. The discussions aim to strengthen bilateral trade ties and advance negotiations on the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between the two countries.

The back-to-back trade negotiations underscore India's growing strategic importance in global commerce as major economic powers seek to deepen trade ties.

The talks come at a time when countries worldwide are recalibrating their trade partnerships and supply chains. The EU-US negotiations could significantly enhance bilateral trade flows with India.

India-EU FTA talks were relaunched in 2022.

EU Ambassador to India Herve Delphin, speaking at India's World Annual Conclave 2025 on Thursday, said the current negotiations represent a fundamentally new phase, calling them "EU-India FTA negotiation 2.0".

"I mean, first, I would say it's not the same FTA negotiation as a decade ago. It's not a continuum. So please don't read this FTA negotiation through the lens of the past," Delphin said.

He said there is now "a growing sense of shared necessity and complementarity articulated by the EU and Indian leaders during the visit of the European Commission earlier this year."

Delphin added that global trade tensions have increased the urgency of a predictable, rules-based framework.

"Of course, there is a sharpest sense of saliency because of the tariff wars that are going on, the tariff offensive that we see. So I think it's, this is an FTA when there is more than trade," the envoy said, addressing a panel discussion.

Pointing to the combined economic weight of both partners, he said, "If you think that the EU and India combined is 25 per cent of the world GDP, 25 per cent of world demography, that's nothing. So if you create an FTA between these two entities, that has a bearing. That has a bearing."

He noted the agreement would help both sides "de-risking this very fraught environment of the world economy," and emphasised that the EU's FTA record shows consistent gains for all parties.

"It is a long-term benefit because the history of European FTAs with any partner, and you can check that with any partner, is a win-win. It's been mutually beneficial. Trade has grown. Jobs have grown. Investments have grown. So we are not in a zero-sum game. So call it the European art of the deal or whatever," Delphin said.

Delphin said there is "a strong political commitment to conclude the FTA negotiations by the end of the year."He noted that both sides have agreed to drop the traditional approach of formal negotiation rounds.

"Now we are in a continuous negotiating mode," he said. "As of tomorrow, you will have a 40 or so strong team of European negotiators coming to Delhi," he said.

India and the United States are scheduled to hold trade talks in New Delhi starting December 10, government sources said on Saturday.

The discussions aim to take forward negotiations on the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between the two countries.

On November 28, the chief negotiator of the deal from India, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal, had said that India is hopeful of signing the first tranche of the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement within the current calendar year.

Addressing the FICCI Annual General Meeting, he indicated that talks have progressed substantially despite recent shifts in global trade conditions.

Reflecting on the negotiations done so far, the Secretary said, "I think our expectations....we are very optimistic and very hopeful that we should find a solution within this calendar year."

India and the US initially aimed to complete the first tranche of the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by the fall of 2025, but new developments in the US trade policy landscape, including tariffs, delayed that goal. (ANI)