EU Regulations Impact Businesses: Goyal

Berlin/New Delhi, Oct 24 (PTI) A host of regulations, including the Carbon Tax, introduced by the European Union are expected to impact its businesses, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

The EU has announced regulations such as Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) which have been strongly objected by India.

"Because of all these regulations, I suspect that Europe is going to have an existential problem for their businesses. Their infrastructure is going to get costlier. Automobiles and planes are going to get costlier.

"Their cost of living will be difficult to manage and they will be living in a cocoon, while other trading partners will be trading around the world with each other," he said at the Berlin Global Dialogue.

The minister is in Berlin to participate in the dialogue, a meeting of leaders and German businesses to discuss ways to boost bilateral trade and investments.


The minister said that there are 73 EU regulations.

It is nearly impossible to fulfil the paperwork requirements to comply with these regulations, he said.

"They (EU) are seeking to hyphenate too many issues. Trade is about trade, why are we hyphenating too many issues with tarde, we are actually messing up the free trade," he added.

India is negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU.

Under CBAM, Indian exports of steel, aluminum, and cement to the EU could face tariffs of 20-35 per cent.

India's exports of products like coffee, leather hides and paperboard worth USD 1.3 billion annually to the European Union will get impacted due to the deforestation regulation adopted by the EU, a report by think tank GTRI has said.