EU-India business meet to up trade, knock down barriers
EU-India business meet to up trade, knock down barriers
Uttara Choudhury, Agence-France Presse, New Delhi
The European Union and India hope to shore up 27 billion euros (US$32.2 billion) worth of annual bilateral trade at a two-day meeting starting on Friday by increasing business-to-business links and knocking down trade barriers.
The fourth EU-India Business Summit organised jointly by five industry lobby groups, the Indian government and the European Commission has drawn more than 50 businesspeople and trade and government officials.
"Trade between India and the EU is poised for a major take- off. We just need to ensure there is nothing blocking the flight path," said joint summit organiser Tarun Das, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
"An agreement in the pipeline on having more transparent and efficient customs procedures will naturally boost trade."
The sudden cancellation of a visit to India by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi due to ill-health had necessitated a programme change, an Indian official said.
Berlusconi, whose country currently holds the revolving presidency of the EU, was to address the meeting along with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, European Commission President Romano Prodi and EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten.
The Italian premier was also to have held day-long bilateral talks with Indian officials Friday but these were cancelled, the official said.
The EU presidency will be represented by Italian deputy foreign minister Margherita Boniver, a spokeswoman for the EU's foreign policy representative, Javier Solana, told AFP in Brussels.
The meeting would "no longer be a summit but a ministerial meeting," the spokeswoman added.
A customs cooperation pact is expected to be signed on Saturday between India and the 15-member EU, which is India's largest trading partner accounting for 25 percent of its imports and exports.
Indian officials could not immediately say if the signing of two bilateral agreements between India and Italy, on science and technology and cooperation in cinema production, would go ahead in Berlusconi's absence.
A spokeswoman for EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, who is here to attend both the EU-India political and business meets, said the Europeans also hoped to open negotiations with India on a maritime deal to cut freight costs.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), also an organiser of the business meet, acknowledged India had to do more to attract greater foreign investment from the West.
"We have to cut red tape, improve infrastructure and do whatever it takes to ensure India is a rival investment destination to China," said Amit Mitra, secretary general of FICCI.
China enjoys a two-decade-long head-start over India, which only began serious economic reforms in the early 1990s.
India and the EU will try to bridge differences from failed World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in October in Cancun, Mexico.
India, during negotiations, led a bloc of developing countries that demanded richer nations trim subsidies to their farmers.
Stefano Gatto, trade and economic counsellor of the European Commission, said that in broad terms the bloc remained committed to global deals within the WTO rather than going for a "patchwork of bilateral agreements."