The EU is pointing fingers today –and they are pointed directly at India. In a recent report, the “Trade and Investment Barriers Report 2011” the EU’s executive body says that India’s trade regime and regulatory environment are restrictive and hampering economic ties with the EU.
Failings by India
The report points to a number of failings in India including the high tariff barriers, quantitative restrictions, import licensing, mandatory testing and other issues.
The report explains that, “With regard to intellectual property, some improvement in the IPR enforcement infrastructure has been reported, however there are still significant concerns about India’s response to counterfeiting and piracy.”
Trade Potential
The report identifies that the EU and India have much more trade potential than they are currently showing. The EU concludes that the free trade agreement with India that is currently under negotiation could be one of the most significant deals to date.
Since numbers don’t lie, it’s important to highlight some of them. Conservative estimates predict that a new trade deal of this sort would generate benefits in the range of 9-19 billion euro.
