India-EU FTA: Safeguarding Exporters' Market Access

New Delhi, Jan 28 (PTI) The India-EU trade pact includes two special provisions under which, if new regulations or rules are introduced in the future that could act as a trade barrier or undermine the benefits of the deal for exporters, corrective measures can be taken by the affected nation to address such impediments, an official said.

The two special market access safeguarding measures are the rapid response mechanism (RRM) and non-violation complaints (NVCs) provisions, the commerce ministry official said.

Under the RRM, both sides have agreed to establish a dedicated and expedited mechanism to address concerns arising from existing and future measures/regulations that create or threaten to create significant disruption or impediment to trade between the two regions.

"These are to take care of new regulations, new impediments which may emerge in future. New regulations may come up which have concerns for the trade. So, how to deal with such regulations? So we have a very high-powered RRM, which will bring up the issue immediately for discussions between the two sides," the official said.

If the matter is not resolved at the official or technical level, there is an escalation mechanism at the minister's level for the resolution of the issue.


"This is a new thing which has been agreed between India and the EU," the official added.

Similarly, the NVC provisions provide for finding a solution to new measures which may not expressly breach the terms of the agreement but nullify or impair the FTA benefits, including market access concessions under the pact.

"These provisions will help India in dealing with challenges of EU's regulations in future and protect FTA benefits," the official added.

Explaining further, the official said this provides for scenarios in which if there is a new measure or regulation or law or new administrative instruction from either side, which does not directly violate any provision of the agreement but impairs the benefits of the pact, for that also, "we have a special provision which will help us in dealing with such kinds of measures".

These are robust mechanisms to address such issues. They are important as India has flagged concerns on the EU's regulations - CBAM (carbon border adjustment mechanism) and EUDR (European Union Deforestation Regulation).

India and the EU on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA). It is expected to be signed or implemented this year itself.