NEW DELHI, Nov 26: With trade running at one billion euros ($1.5 billion dollars) a week, the European Union said on Monday it was seeking “fast” agreement on a free trade deal with India.
“The trade flow is amounting to more that one billion euros per week,” European Commission delegation chief Daniele Smadja told a news conference.
The annual exchange of goods had reached 47 billion euros, with services at 10 billion euros, but had not yet reached its potential, she said ahead of the opening of the 8th India-EU summit on Friday.
“We believe that a trade and investment agreement would boost in a remarkable way investments and trade. We are ready to go as fast as the both sides wish to.” European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates will attend the New Delhi talks.
“We are negotiating a free trade agreement and negotiations are going very well. We hope during this summit to bring impetus to these negotiations,” added Portuguese ambassador Luis Filipe Castro Mendes.
EU foreign ministers gave a green light last April for the talks to start with India. But neither Smadja nor Mendes predicted when an agreement would be struck. —AFP
