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EU, India to relaunch stalled trade talks

10.05.2021 15:10
Poland has joined fellow EU countries in welcoming a relaunch of long-stalled trade talks with India in a major push to drum up business.
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Image: BuffikPixabay.com
Image: Buffik/Pixabay.com Pixabay licence

The news came on the second day of an EU summit. The talks, seen as a response to the rising power of China, will restart after eight years and, apart from boosting trade, are to cover an investment protection agreement and finding solutions to longstanding issues of market access. 

During a video summit, EU leaders offered the Indian authorities further assistance amid a rampant epidemic in their country.

So far, 16 EU countries including Poland have sent medical equipment and drugs worth an estimated EUR 100 million to India as part of international efforts to help it fight against a flood of COVID-19 cases.

"India is second most populous country and fifth largest economy in the world, so there is huge potential for expanding trade and investment. However, in order to this, we need to have better market access and better protection of investment. Hopefully now these hurdles will be removed from the road to closer cooperation," Patryk Kugiel, an Asia and Pacific region analyst at the Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), told Radio Poland's Danuta Isler.