On 27^th January this year, India and the EU concluded their free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, the most protracted trade negotiations between two economies. It was at the 2005 EU-India Summit that the EU and India expressed “serious political commitment to increase bilateral trade and economic cooperation and to tackle barriers to trade and investment” and both sides agreed to commence negotiations for such an agreement in 2006. Formal negotiations for the FTA began in 2007.

When the…