With an ambitious target to more than double their bilateral trade to $200 billion in the next four years, India and EU hoped on Friday they can resolve differences and reach a free trade agreement within a year.
"We have expressed the hope that the negotiations can be completed in one year," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after the 10th India-European Union Summit in New Delhi.
Addressing a joint press conference with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Singh said both sides reviewed the progress on negotiations for a broad-based agreement in trade and investment.
He said the agreement would be instrumental "to increase economic opportunities, creation of jobs and wealth."
Barroso also underscored the importance of concluding the trade-opening pact that would help sustain the global economic recovery. He said there are signs of global rebound but they would require a push from the cross-border trade.
"Trade is important for economic recovery. . .the agreement in trade is important for sustaining this recovery," Barroso said.
India and the 27-nation bloc have been engaged in talks for the last three years to conclude a bilateral trade and investment agreement, aimed at breaking duty barriers to the mutual trade that aggregated $80 billion in 2008-09.
Wide differences on the scope of the negotiations have stalled the pact. India is strongly opposed to inclusion of 'extraneous' issues like child labour and environment which the EU wants to get addressed.
Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, who held separate meetings with EU Trade commissioner Catherine Ashton and Swedish trade minister Eva Bjorling, said on Thursday if the bilateral relations are put on a fast track through a pact, mutual trade can leapfrog to $200 billion by 2013.
Image: Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma
