Skip to main content

No FDI in multi brand retail EU told

By
The government has categorically informed the European Union (EU) that it will not allow European multibrand retail firms to set up shop here, even as both sides decided to resume negotiations towards concluding the long- pending Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement ( BTIA).
While the negotiations for a BTIA, or a free trade agreement (FTA) as it is better known, started in 2007, it has missed two deadlines since then.
The government told EU it cannot allow the entry of multibrand retail chains due to political compulsions, although this is allowed under the foreign direct investment ( FDI) policy.
“We have made it clear to the EU that we will not allow foreign direct investments in multibrand retail even if there is a policy,” a top official told Business Standard.
Talks are now to resume next month. This will be the first such attempt by the Narendra Modi government since it came to power in May last year. Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharman and EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström have met a couple of times but an official round of talks has not taken place so far.
During these meetings, India and the EU were able to reach “common ground” with the latter dropping its insistence on including sustainable development issues as part of the deal. The EU, it seems, has also agreed to not let issues related to other development objectives such as environment protection and climate change be included in FTA.
India also seems to have got an upper hand in terms of narrowing their other demand on liberalising legal services.
However, the government has assured the EU it is willing to reduce tariffs on automobiles and wines and spirits, among the latters’ prime demands.
In the bargain, India has asked the EU to grant it a ‘ data secure’ nation status. This will pave the way in boosting the countrys information technology and IT- enabled services sectors.
It has also demanded a relaxed visa regime and increase in immigration quotas for its teeming professionals.
The next round of talks will take place here on August 28, between J S Deepak, additional secretary ( trade policy division) in the commerce department, and Ignacio Garcia Bercero, EUs Directorate General of Trade. Deepak and Barcero are the respective chief negotiators for India and EU.
Business Standard, New Delhi, 27th July 2015

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

By
  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...
Post a Comment
Read more