The keys
nuevo
Generated with AI
nuevo
Generated with AI
After almost 20 years of negotiations, India and the European Union They closed this Tuesdaymother of all agreements“, a mammoth trade pact that will create a market of 2 billion consumers and will save 4 billion euros a year in tariffs for community exporters.
The pact is one of the central pillars of Brussels’ diversification strategy and search for new allies to offset the commercial aggressiveness of Donald Trumpalong with the trade agreement with Mercosur.
The great paradox is that it has been Trump himself who has acted as ultimate catalyst of the trade agreement between India and the EU, which was already showing clear signs of exhaustion after so many years of fruitless dialogue.
The “humiliation” caused by its tariffs of up to 50% has ended up pushing the Indian Government, traditionally protectionist and until now proud of his good relationship with the White House, in the arms of Brussels, according to community sources.
The agreement was closed during a visit to New Delhi by the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of the European Council, António Costa, who held a summit there with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
“In this increasingly volatile world, Europe is committed to cooperation and strategic partnerships. Today we signed the free trade agreement between the EU and India, the mother of all trade agreements,” he celebrated Von der Leyen.
“We are opening an extraordinary market for fluid trade, investment and a drastic reduction in tariffs for 2 billion people,” says Von der Leyen.
This is the most ambitious trade opening that India has ever granted to a trading partner, Brussels highlights. It will provide a significant competitive advantage to key industrial and agri-food sectors in the EU, giving companies privileged access to the most populous country in the world, with 1.45 billion people, and the fastest growing large economy, with an annual GDP of 3.4 trillion euros.
Among the most benefited sectors in the EU, the automobile industrywhose tariffs will be gradually reduced from 110% to 10%, with a quota of 250,000 vehicles per year.
For its part, the high rates of up to 44% in machinery22% in chemicals or 11% in pharmaceuticals.
The agreement eliminates or reduces often prohibitive tariffs (more than 36% on average) on agri-food exports of the EU, opening a huge market for European farmers, according to Brussels.
Among the most interesting products for Spanish exporters are olive oil (whose tariff will be reduced from 45% to zero) or wine (with a reduction from the current 150% to 20%).
Both parties have agreed exclude the most sensitive agricultural products from liberalization. Thus, the EU maintains its current rates on sensitive products such as beef, sugar, rice, chicken meat, milk powder, honey, bananas, common wheat, garlic and ethanol.
Brussels will open calibrated tariff quotas for imports of sheep and goat meat, sweet corn, grapes, cucumbers, dehydrated onions, rum made from molasses and starches.
The agreement includes a bilateral safeguard mechanism, which will allow for a specific response “in the unlikely event of market disruptions arising directly from the agreement.”
The EU and India already trade goods and services worth more than €180 billion a year, supporting nearly 800,000 jobs in the EU. This agreement is expected double EU goods exports to India by 2032.
In parallel, India and the EU continue to negotiate a separate agreement on Geographical Indications (GI), which “will help traditional EU agricultural products sell more in India, by eliminating unfair competition in the form of imitations.”
The great obstacle that has prevented closing this pact is the recognition of the basmati ricea national symbol whose origin India claims, but which Pakistan also claims.
In New Delhi, India and the EU have also signed a Security and Defense Agreementwhich aims to ensure closer cooperation on shared priorities, such as maritime security, non-proliferation and disarmament, space, countering cyber and hybrid threats, and terrorism.
In order to quickly close this treaty, Brussels has turned a blind eye to India’s closeness to Russiaalthough Von der Leyen has asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pressure Vladimir Putin to accept a ceasefire in Ukraine.