The European Commission (EC) has called for an open discussion between India and the European Union on how to deal with social and environmental issues, child labour and related matters for the successful conclusion of the ongoing India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. “It is very clear for us that promoting sustainable development is not a veiled attempt of protectionism. On the contrary, trade negotiations are designed to eliminate barriers...

Energy security is a major objective of all countries. Some are proactive and aggressive in this pursuit, like China; others like India are slow and procrastinate on major decisions and allow hope to overtake realistic assessments. This makes energy security in the foreseeable future an uncertain goal for India. Any discussion of energy security must keep in mind the Indian realities. Although in overall terms of commercial energy use to...

This is a statement sent in by V.R. Krishna Iyer, a former Judge of the Supreme Court, who is based in Kochi: Some of the provisions of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that India recently signed with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will weaken India’s, and specifically Kerala’s, rubber sector because Malaysia and a few other countries that are a part of the ASEAN will flood the...

KOCHI: In a rare move, the Union government has launched an ‘Appeal to the People of Kerala’ advertisement campaign to counter the ‘false propaganda’ against the Indo-ASEAN Free Trade agreement (FTA). Rarely does the Centre come out with such State-specific advertisement campaigns to counter resistance to its policy, it is pointed out. The half-page ads in the newspapers, issued in ‘public interest’ by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is...

The controversy over signing the India-ASEAN FTA has not dampened the enthusiasm of the UPA government for pursuing Free Trade agreements with other countries. Apart from the trade negotiations with the EU, the government is juggling with the possibility of entering into Free Trade agreements with quite a few countries and groupings. At present India is looking at the possibility of entering into FTA negotiations with Australia. Moving fast, a...