
Piyush Goyal calls for easing of 'complex' EU regulations
PARIS: As India and the European Union move towards a comprehensive free trade agreement - with investment protection and geographical indications likely to be added later - commerce and industry minister
Piyush Goyal
Tuesday called for easing of regulations in the trading bloc and member nations, describing them as "complex".
"We have regulations in India too, but the kind of regulations which EU has, and on top of that each member state has, my businesses are just completely foxed. How to go through that maze, but we've got to sort out. We can't just remain foxed. We've got to find solutions," he said. Goyal and EU commissioner for trade and economic security Maros Sefcovic met for a 90 minutes on Monday evening where several issues were thrashed out, amid indications that contentious issues such as dairy and agriculture will be kept out.
"We have to take care about, for example, our agriculture, and about some norms that we have in terms of environment, also in terms of sanitary norms, and a deal at the end is a consensus," French foreign trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said after meeting Goyal, while asserting that both sides have to understand each other's sensitivities.
He said that the success of the India-France defence sector can be a role model for other sectors. "I am pretty optimistic about the fact that we can have an agreement in the coming weeks, coming months, because we have to showcase to the world that we do believe in trade, in a freer trade, and not in a trade war," he said.
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