Bilateral Trade to Bounce Back After the First India-EU High-Level Dialogue Held on Trade and Investments

New Delhi: European states and the EU have emerged as key global partners for India. The15th Summit between India and European Union was held in a virtual format on 15th July 2020.

The first High-Level Dialogue (HLD), co-chaired by the Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and the European Union Executive Vice-President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, was held on Friday. 

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the establishment of this Dialogue was a result of the 15th Indian-EU Leader’s Summit that decided to focus on ministerial-level guidance towards bilateral trade and investment relations.

As the world is fighting the COVID-19, the leaders during the HLD emphasized the importance of global cooperation and solidarity to protect lives and to mitigate the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic.

Further, they also agreed on improving the bilateral trade and investment relationship through a series of regular engagements, aiming at quick deliverable for the business in tough times.

It is also revealed that the ministers also agreed to meet within the next three months, with an objective for reaching consensus on a host of bilateral trade and investment cooperation issues viz. a bilateral Regulatory Dialogue; an India-EU Multilateral Dialogue to explore further possibilities of cooperation; etc. 

A regular interaction for re-initiation of bilateral trade and investment agreements were also pondered. An interim agreement was also proposed to begin with.

The meet concluded with high confidence and commitment by the ministers towards the restoration of India-EU’s commercial and economic partnership.