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Informist, Tuesday, Apr. 29, 2025

NEW DELHI – Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal met with Croatia's State Secretary for Foreign Trade and Development Zdenko Lucic and State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy Ivo Milatic last week to strengthen trade and investment ties between India and Croatia. The discussions aimed at boosting sector-specific cooperation and reinforce India's engagement with Central Europe, the commerce ministry said in a release on Tuesday. 

Barthwal's meeting with Lucic focused on advancing the proposed European Union-India free trade agreement and enhancing bilateral trade cooperation. The next round of India-EU negotiations for the agreement is scheduled to take place in New Delhi from May 12-16.

According to the release, Barthwal spoke about the areas of collaboration between the two countries such as railways, global capability centres, electric vehicles, information technology, among others. The Croatian side expressed interest in investing in sectors such as defence, solar cell manufacturing, food processing technology, and automobiles, the release added.

India and the EU had resumed negotiations for a trade agreement in June 2023 after a gap of nine years. In 2007, they had launched negotiations for a broad-based trade and investment agreement, but the discussions were suspended in 2014 following differences over market access. The EU's proposal of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and regulation on deforestation products have been some of the sensitive issues for India in the talks. India sees the measures by EU to mitigate climate change as non-tariff barriers. 

Under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the countries exporting goods to the EU have to report the carbon content of the commodity, which will determine its tax on it. The carbon tax collection is expected to begin in 2026. These measures by the EU may affect the profitability of Indian exporters, as Europe is among the top export destinations for the country. India's total trade with the EU was $112.73 billion in Apr-Jan, with imports at $49.89 billion and exports at $62.84 billion, according to the latest data available with the commerce ministry. 

In the meeting with Milatic, Barthwal's talks focussed on promoting investment flows, and enhancing cooperation across key sectors, including healthcare, education, tourism, entertainment, supply-chain integration, logistics, transports, pharmaceuticals, digital technology, renewable energy, and manufacturing.  End

US$1 = INR 85.26

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Subhojit Sarkar

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