Webinar: The India-EU Free Trade Negotiations – a critical assessment
Channel: RosaluxEuropa
Date: 2023-03-18

Talks between India and the European Union (EU) on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) started in 2007, slowly progressed over a few years, and then came to a halt in 2013. After a long silence, and  influenced by shifts in the global geopolitical order, both the  parties are back on the negotiation table since June 2022 with a lot of optimism to conclude deals by the end of 2023. Separate negotiations on investment protection and geographical indications were launched simultaneously.
The upcoming 4th round of negotiations takes place from 13 to 17 March in Brussels. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung takes this opportunity to discuss political changes in the EU, in India, and globally related to the trade deal.  Since, contradictions that stalled the process of negotiations between EU and India in 2013 have not disappeared; thereof it is worthwhile to discuss factors that may lead to a failure of the deal. 
 
Recently, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung published two reports on the EU-India trade negotiations, by Lora Verheecke and Ranja Sengupta. These reports analyze the impact of the future FTA on economic, social and political governance in India and the EU, on what workers and citizens can expect from the agreement, and what effects it will have on the environment and access to services.
Paradoxically, skepticism of Free Trade oriented policies is growing in many places, but at the same time, the wave of peoples’ resistance against Free Trade is fading away. Therefore, we want to initiate a critical debate on how this trade deal is potentially worsening the climate, labor rights, quality and affordable public services and data privacy.

Speaker: 

Helmut Scholz
Member of European Parliament for The Left 

Lora Verheecke
Independent Researcher on EU Trade Policy 

Ranja Sengupta
Third World Network 

Biswajit Dhar 
Jawaharlal Nehru University 

Moderation:

Florian Horn
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Brussels Office