ABSTRACT
Since June 2007, India and the European Union (EU) have been negotiating a free-trade agreement (FTA) or, to be more specific, a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). It covers trade in goods, trade in services, investment, trade facilitation, trade defence, dispute settlement, the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime, competition, transparency in government procurement, and sustainable development, among others. The chapter discusses some economic dimensions of the EU-India FTA. While the details of the negotiations have been kept confidential, a number of articles, research papers and other commentaries on the FTA under negotiation are available. IPR and government procurement have been two major issues in the EU-India FTA negotiations. While both India and the EU have a large number of trade agreements with other countries, completed or under various stages of negotiation, the EU-India FTA is important for both. There has been considerable concern about the IPR-related provisions in the agreement, particularly the imposition of data exclusivity.
