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India has asked the European Union to have a higher cut-off for triggering visa curbs introduced in the latter’s proposals offering additional 40,000 visas to Indian professionals every year.
This is part of the ongoing India-EU free trade agreement talks. New Delhi has argued that the a lower cut-off margin could render the concessions meaningless.
In a safeguard clause, the EU will allow individual member countries to take measures to check entry of professionals from India as soon as 20 per cent of the committed number is breached.
Since the EU’s offer is one of the main bargaining chips to nudge India to agree to deep tariff cuts in cars and alcohol, any limit on the number of visas is not acceptable, a Commerce Department official said.
These additional visas are to be issued by the EU-member countries without any Economic Needs Test to show its impact on local workforce, which is otherwise mandated by many countries. “The threshold level is way too low. This means that as soon as a member gives out one-fifth of the total number of visas it has agreed to issue, it could be free to impose restrictions. This is like giving with one hand and taking back with the other,” the official said.
India has listed the issue as top priority to be discussed in the meetings of the negotiating group before the next India-EU ministerial meet scheduled in June. The main problem with EU’s proposed commitments for additional professional visas could be the fact that it imposes different burden on different countries, with the heaviest weight on the UK.
UK’s share of 12,000 is 30 per cent of the total - despite the country making up only 12 per cent of the EU’s population.
The Commerce Department argument is that since these visas are short-term, for up to six months, it would not be burdensome for any country.
India has also asked the EU to grant secondary mobility inside the EU-member state to Indian professionals so that they can move from one EU country to the other without restrictions.
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