NEW DELHI: India and EU have recently concluded the third round of negotiations for the ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Sweden is taking over the EU Presidency in a few weeks' time and working on the FTA will be among their topmost priorities.
"India is significant for us and that's the reason it is the first country that I have travelled to outside of Europe. We are soon going to be taking over the EU Presidency and among the things foremost on our mind is to get the FTA moving faster. We will broker the deal which should be based on trust. And as of now, I don't see the FTA coming through in our Presidency as there are 27 EU members nations that have to work out an agreement with India," said Johan Forssell, Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade. He added that they hoped for a comprehensive FTA for which negotiations could take longer.
Forssell was in India with a 15-member trade delegation which comprised CEOs of leading Swedish companies that included SAAB, Astra Zeneca, and Volvo among others.
Though Forssell didn't spell out the possible roadblocks in the negotiations, he did say that easing of tariffs would help trade. The minister also met with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and said he was hoping that there would be ease of doing business which would enable more Swedish companies to invest in India.
There are over 250 Swedish companies in India, including Erricsson, Volvo, SKF, Sandvik, Ikea and Volvo to name a few.
"The bilateral trade between India and Sweden has been on the upswing. In 2021 the commodity exports from Sweden to India was Kroner 11.5 billion and services was Kroner 5.8 billion. Exports from India to Sweden were Kroner 8.5 billion and services Kroner 16.5 billion," said an official from Sweden.
Meanwhile, India and Sweden will be celebrating 75 years of diplomatic ties with each other in 2023. Sweden is also in the process of assisting India in green transistion and infrastructure in medical technology. The sectors of collaboration were defence, healthcare and security, Forssell pointed.
Regarding India's continuous and increasing import of fossil fuel from Russia, Forssell said that every country must take its own decision.
"We are hoping that the war ends soon and have just sent a winter package to Ukraine. A lot of work will have to be done there in terms of reconstruction. We are completely in sync with what Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has said, 'that this is no time for war'," Forssell added.