India, EU announce launch of talks on three trade pacts

THE TWO SIDES DIDN’T SPECIFY

ANY TIME FRAME FOR NEGOTIATIONS ON TRADE, INVESTMENT PROTECTION AND GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS

NEW DELHI: India and the European Union (EU) on Saturday announced the resumption of negotiations on three balanced and comprehensive trade-related agreements but were unable to reach common ground on New Delhi’s call for a waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines.

During a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders of the 27 EU member states, the two sides also unveiled an ambitious connectivity partnership to foster public and private investments in connectivity projects and take up joint projects in Africa, Cenhigh-level tral Asia and the Indo-pacific. This is only the EU’S second such partnership after a similar arrangement with Japan.

The two sides didn’t specify any time frame for negotiations on the agreements on trade, investment protection and geographical indications, saying a

mechanism led by India’s commerce minister and the EU trade commissioner would steer the negotiations and decide timelines.

At a news briefing in Porto after the summit, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel were lukewarm towards the proposal by India and South Africa for relaxing norms of the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for vaccines. They expressed doubts as to whether such a move will help access to vaccines and instead called on countries manufacturing doses to ramp up production and delivery.