Terming 2015 an interesting and exciting year, European Union Ambassador J Cravinho said that this was the right time for the India-European Union Broad-based Investment and Trade Agreement to be finalised.

The last round of negotiations between India and the EU on the agreement was in mid-2013. “At that time we felt that it was a reflection of the fact that the Government was coming to the end of its term and in these circumstances it is always difficult to get the political capital that is required to finalise a trade deal. Now, we hope that circumstances exist to push things through,” the envoy said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Besides a new Government in India, there is also a new set of leaders in the EU, the envoy added.

Trade policy awaited

On trade relations, the envoy said that the EU was waiting for India to announce its new foreign trade policy.

“I am identifying the foreign trade policy to be a crystallisation of the Government’s thinking in terms of external trading relations. We do not depend on the publication of the policy. What we depend on is India saying it is ready to look at issues, talk about them, negotiate and try to find a solution.

“(It is an) Important element for us to understand where we go with the EU-India trade relationship, where we put it on the back-burner and say we have to concentrate on other things or finalise it and go ahead. Because all the work we have done is superior to the work that remains to be done,” Cravinho said.

The ambassador said that there is a lot that binds India and the European Union, including the fact that both talk about creation of jobs and the need for making it easier to do business.

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