Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to Brussels at 1st India-E.U. Trade and Technology Council meeting in Brussels. Photo: Twitter/@DrSJaishankar
India and the E.U. are working to resolve a looming issue in their trade relationship — the E.U.’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), with the two sides discussing it during a Minister-level meeting in Brussels on May 15 (Monday) and May 16 (Tuesday). The E.U. is India’s second-largest trading partner (after the U.S.) and India’s second-largest export market.
The E.U. describes the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as a “landmark tool” which places a “fair price” on carbon emitted during the production of goods that are entering the E.U. and a mechanism to “encourage cleaner industrial “production outside the E.U.
The CBAM regulations came into effect on May 16 and will begin their transitional phase of implementation on October 1, 2023. The tax was discussed during a visit by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to Brussels for bilateral meetings and the first edition of the E.U.-India Trade and Technology Council (TTC).
The joint statement from the TTC said the two parties would “intensify their engagement to address the issues that emerge in implementation” of the CBAM.
Following the meeting, the Ministers on May 16 evening, Mr. Goyal said the two sides “remain engaged” and are discussing the issue.
“And we have a long time ahead of us within which we’ll be working together to find the right solutions to this,” he said, during a press conference of the ministers and their E.U. counterparts — EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
“I am sure the intention is not to create a barrier to trade,” Mr. Goyal said, emphasizing that the measure was about sustainability.
The Europeans insisted that the mechanism did not run afoul of WTO rules.
”…We were of course very careful to ensure WTO compatibility of the initiative. And a key word for this is ‘non-discrimination’. So we apply the same price of carbon to imported goods that we are going to apply also on our domestic producers,” Mr. Dombrovskis said.
Trade and Technology Council Meet Announces Semiconductor MoU
This week’s first meeting of the TTC was conducted across three working groups: Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance and Digital Connectivity; Green and Clean Energy Technologies; and Trade, Investment and Resilient Value Chains .
A joint statement from the two sides listed progress made and said that an MoU on semiconductors would be concluded by September 2023. Mr. Goyal said that the TTC would supplement trade deal talks between India and the EU and that it would help make the relationship “the defining partnership of the 21 st Century”. The Working Group on trade discussed resilient value chains, market access issues, screening of FDI and multilateral trade issues.
The TTC was launched in early 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU has a similar platform with the U.S., the only other country, apart from India, with which it shares such a forum.