India is currently the fastest growing economy in the world and a strategic partner for the EU, representing a sizable and dynamic market of 1.25 billion people. For these reasons, the EU and India are committed to further increase their bilateral trade and investment through the Free Trade Agreement negotiations that were launched in 2007.
After substantial progress was made through a number of negotiation rounds, discussions are currently focused on key outstanding issues that include improved market access for some goods and services, government procurement, geographical indications, sound investment protection rules, and sustainable development.
Trade picture<span>The EU is India's number one trading partner (13% of India's overall trade with the world in 2014-15), well ahead of China (9.5%), USA (8.5%), UAE (7.8%) and Saudi Arabia (5.2%).<span>India is the EU's 9th trading partner in 2015 (2.2% of EU's overall trade with the world), after South Korea (2.6%) and ahead of Brazil (1.9%). </span><span>The value of EU exports to India grew from €21.3 billion in 2005 to €38.1 billion in 2015, with engineering goods, gems and jewelry, other manufactured goods and chemicals ranking at the top. </span>The value of EU imports from India also increased from €19.1 billion in 2005 to €39.4 billion in 2015, with at the top textiles and clothing, chemicals and engineering goods.Trade in services almost tripled in the past decade, increasing from €5.2billion in 2002 to €14 billion in 2015.<span>EU investment stocks in India amounted to €38.5 billion in 2014, increasing from €34.7 billion in the previous year.</span></span>
