NEW DELHI: India and the European Union Friday said that they are working intensely to finalise the trade deal by year-end, with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal suggesting that some strategic elements may be part of the overall arrangement in the coming months.“We’ve been negotiating this for quite some time, but I can tell you that it never got such a momentum as we have right now, between minister Goyal and myself, and of course, having a strong political support from both leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen… We are now maximising our efforts to finalise negotiations by end of the year,” European trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic told the Acma annual meeting.
India is fast becoming a key engine of the global economy and a strong economic partnership will add significant value to the EU, just as Europe’s technology and scale will benefit India’s growth story, he said. Amid the ongoing trade tensions, this week, negotiators from the two sides have been engaged in discussions to narrow the gaps, with Goyal and Sefcovic seeking to find solutions on contentious issues at their level. The two sides have been negotiating a trade deal for nearly two decades but have moved swiftly this year.Goyal said he has spent “long hours of jostling and fighting” with Sefcovic. “I can tell you, he is a tough negotiator, very difficult to get anything past Maros… Every agreement has some give and take to make it a balanced agreement. There can never be a perfect situation and we all agree we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good. But I can assure you the direction in which we are going, the possibilities that we are trying to unlock are immense.“The Indian minister as well as his European counterpart acknowledged that the global environment was tough. Pointing to challenges in the past, Goyal urged industry to remain positive. “The long term endurance and our ability to withstand shocks, to withstand difficulties, will always remain with us, and that is our true strength.”