EU top trade official travel to India for G20 meet & FTA talks

Overall, the EU is aiming to deepen ties with India and working to that end with negotiations on three ambitious agreements: a Free Trade Agreement, an Investment Protection Agreement and a Geographical Indications Agreement. Closer EU-India cooperation is symbolised through the parallel engagement in the Trade and Technology Council, according to a readout by EU.

India and the 10-nation bloc Asean on Monday said they have directed their officials to intensify their efforts to conclude the review of the existing free trade agreement in goods between the two regions by 2025. The issue was discussed during the twentieth AEM (Asean Economic Ministers)-India Consultation meeting, held at Semarang, Indonesia.

The exporters whose rice shipments were stuck at ports following export bans may get some relief. The centre has directed Indian customs to allow shipments of non-basmati rice for export where the shipment has commenced where shipping bills were filed and where vessels arrived and anchored in Indian ports before ban notification.

The move is part of the Reserve Bank of India’s broader aim of promoting settlement in local currencies with countries with which India has a trade deficit, with the knock-on effect of boosting the rupee’s global reach, three banking sources said.

India has asked for the review of the agreement with an aim to eliminate barriers and misuse of the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement, which came into effect on January 1, 2010. Members of the Asean include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Elsewhere in Asia, the contest is about semiconductors, the high-value heart of communication, transportation, artificial intelligence, and a lot else besides. From Thailand to Singapore and Malaysia, several countries are now in the fray to shift the locus of front-end chip manufacturing from East to Southeast and South Asia. India is trying tostep on that […]

Discussions on the proposed bilateral investment treaty and free trade agreement between India and the UK will be a focus during a visit by UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch and Director General for Trade Negotiations Amanda Brooks. The pair will hold talks with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and […]

India has identified five priority issues—growth and prosperity, resilient global value chains, MSMEs, logistics, and World Trade Organization (WTO) reform—under its G20 presidency from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023.

The move is expected to cool the retail inflation as vegetable prices sent consumer inflation soaring to a 15-month high in July, compared with 4.87% in the previous month, breaching the upper tolerance band of the Reserve Bank of India for the first time in FY24.