India’s Six broad principles for strengthening trade and investment with European Union (EU) | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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India’s Six broad principles for strengthening trade and investment with European Union (EU)

Posted 21 Jan 2025

2 min read

Outlined by Minister of Commerce and Industry, they tend to build a mutually beneficial partnership between the two. 

The Six Broad Principles

  • Focus on common values of democracy, rule of law and independent judiciary. 
  • Build a commercially meaningful, fair and equitable trade agenda, addressing trade barriers. 
  • Exchange best practices and harmonizing standards to achieve zero defect and zero effect production capability. 
  • Develop cutting edge technologies, secure critical raw material supply chains and build resilient supply chain. 
  • Cooperation in trade and sustainable development conforming to Common But Differentiated Responsibility. 
  • Partnership in mutual growth and development.

Significance of EU for India

  • Concerns regarding China: Issues like China’s global expansion via the Belt and Road Initiative, military adventurism in Asia, misuse of the multilateral trading system, etc. 
  • Economic De-risking: India has a large and growing trade deficit with China and is heavily dependent on it for strategically important inputs.
  • Critical and Emerging Technologies: EU could offer attractive capabilities in emerging domains like Cyber, Space, Quantum technology, Synthetic biology, etc. 

India-EU Relations

  • Background: India- EU Strategic Partnership signed in 2004. 
    • Adoption of EU-India Joint Action Plan in 2005 dealing with political, economic, and development cooperation. 
  • Economic Relations: Bilateral trade estimated at over $180 billion in 2023-2024.
    • EU is a significant source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with total FDI estimated at $117.34 billion.
  • Challenges with Bilateral Relations: Non conclusion of EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) disagreements over labour and environmental standards, etc. 
  • Tags :
  • India-EU
  • Six Broad Principles
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