India and the EFTA to resume negotiations on a trade and economic partnership agreement

India and the EFTA, which comprises Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, agreed last month to resume negotiations on a trade and economic partnership agreement (TEPA), as the European nations pushed for the same.

The deal aims to include trade in goods and services, agriculture, investment, government procurement, competition, intellectual property rights and technical cooperation, according to official sources.

The scope of the comprehensive deal may also include sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), technical barriers to trade (TBTs) and dispute settlement.

Negotiations will have to account for two-way trade being skewed in favour of EFTA states.

Indian officials said there are possibilities for collaboration in areas such as healthcare, telemedicine, education and technological advancements.

Indian rice exports had faced some cases of rejection over pesticide residue in 2021.

India’s key imports from these fours are gold ($20.7 billion in 2021-22), silver, coal, pharmaceutical products, vegetable oil, dairy machinery, medical and scientific equipment, and petroleum crude. It exports chemicals, iron, steel, gold, precious stones, yarns, sports goods, glassware and bulk drugs.

A meeting attended by commerce minister Piyush Goyal in Brussels on May 14 saw significant progress in taking forward the talks towards a comprehensive agreement.

Switzerland is also important for India in the context of foreign direct investments (FDI), as well as being India’s largest trade partner among the EFTA states.

India’s total trade with the four countries during 2021-22 was $27.23 billion, with a deficit of more than $23.7 billion.