Jaishankar feels India-European Union Foreign Trade Agreement is 'most difficult' due to involvement of several non-trade issues

Jaishankar made the remark while attending a seminar on Indian Capital Markets ‘Roadmap for Viksit Bharat’ at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Mumbai.

“An FTA with the European Union is the most difficult FTA, most complex FTA to do because there are a lot of non-trade issues involved in that FTA. So we are confident that we will certainly, on our side, try to take it forward,” the EAM was quoted as saying by ANI.

“But typically, I’d be honest, because, again, what had happened was we lost a lot of time in between because of changes of positions. I mean, what has happened has happened. So we are definitely very serious about pushing it,” he said.

He said if the Narendra Modi-led Indian government comes to power for another term then this FTA will be a top trade priority.

“My expectation is going into the next term, if all goes well with us, it will definitely be one of our important trade priorities,” he said.

India is currently voting in the seven phased Lok Sabha polls.

PM Narendra Modi is eyeing to return to power for the rare third straight term in Indian politics.

The EU is India's third largest trading partner, accounting for Euro 88 billion worth of trade in goods in 2021 or 10.8% of total Indian trade, after the USA (11.6%) and China (11.4%).

The EU is the second-largest destination for Indian exports (14.9% of the total) after the USA (18.1%), while China only ranks fourth (5.8%).

Trade in goods between the EU and India increased by about 30% in the last decade.