Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA)

Subject – IR

Context – India-EU trade talks toresume by December

Concept –

The BTIA broad trade arrangement covers many factors of trade in goods, services, and investment.
In June 2007, India and the EU began negotiations on a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in Brussels, Belgium.
These negotiations are pursuant to the commitment made by political leaders at the 7th India-EU Summit held in Helsinki on 13th October 2006 to move towards negotiations for a broad-based trade and investment agreement on the basis of the report of India-EU High Level Technical Group.
If successfully concluded, BTIA has the potential to bring real substance to the India-EU Strategic Partnership.
India-EU trade relations are backed by the Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development signed in December 1993, and the EU-India Strategic Partnership launched in 2004.

Trade between India and EU –

According to the latest Eurostat report, the EU is India’s third-largest trading partner by far, accounting for 11.1 percent of India’s total external trade below China (12 percent) and the USA (11.7 percent).
At the same time, India is the EU’s tenth largest trading partner, with 1.8 percent of total trade in 2020.
The EU is one of the important sources of F
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for India.