Officials said that the two sides have established a work stream under the India-EU TTC wherein issues have been clubbed under five broad areas—market access, World Trade Organization, FDI, CBAM and global value chains. The work stream will address key issues in these areas.
“We have established a work stream under the TTC and issues have been clubbed under five broad areas to help address them in a focused manner,” said an official.
The TTC is a platform to address key trade, technology and security challenges of the two sides and its first meeting was held last month in Brussels. It is co-chaired on the Indian side by the ministers of external affairs, commerce and industry, and electronics and information technology.
On the EU side, the executive vice-presidents of the European Commission in charge of digital technology and trade co-chair it.
As per the official, one round of talks have happened on CBAM, which will kick in from October when domestic companies from seven carbon-intensive sectors including steel, cement, fertiliser, aluminium, and hydrocarbon products would have to seek certificates from the EU authorities to comply with the CBAM norms.“Talks on CBAM are on with the EU,” the official said.India has asked the EU to recognise its Carbon Credit Trading Scheme being finalised by the power ministry.
Though the EU has said that CBAM is a part of their climate action efforts, countries like India are of the view that it is a trade-related measure. India has told the WTO that carbon border measures are being selectively applied to “trade-exposed industries” such as steel, aluminium, chemicals, plastics, polymers, chemicals and fertilisers, which reflects the underlying competitiveness concerns driving such measures.