India-EU Trade Talks: Goyal to Meet EU Commissioner on Feb 28

New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is expected meet to European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic on February 28 and discuss ways to promote two-way trade, an official said.

Both sides are likely to review the progress of talks for the proposed free trade agreement, which is under negotiations.

There is significant progress in the negotiations for the agreement, which aims at boosting bilateral trade and investments, the official said.

Goyal was in Brussels last month to meet the European Commissioner for Trade to take stock of the progress of the talks.

These meetings are important as both sides are holding the 10th round of talks for the pact from March 10-14 in Brussels.

In the ninth round, both sides discussed trade issues covering goods, services, investment and government procurement along with necessary rules such as rules of origin, SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary), and technical barriers to trade.

In June 2022, India and the 27-nation EU bloc resumed the negotiations after a gap of over eight years. It was stalled in 2013 due to differences over several issues.

The total trade stood at USD 180 billion in 2023-24. India exported USD 75.18 billion in goods and USD 31.13 billion in services to the EU, while the EU exported USD 63.44 billion in goods and USD 31.35 billion in services to India.