INDIAN EU TRADE TO DROP

Indian EU trade to drop as four of India’s top ten exporters say they are to halt shipments to EU according to a report published in Businessline by P Manoj
India’s seafood exports to the European Union is set to drop sharply this year after its biggest competitor Vietnam signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Bloc in July that helps it export products to the EU without any customs duty, according to the Maharashtra region head of the seafood exporters body.
“Vietnam has just signed an FTA with the EU in July, making it a zero-duty trading partner and seafood was one of the main things,” Rustom Irani, President, Maharashtra region of The Seafood Exporters Association of India told BusinessLine.
“Vietnam is a big competitor to us in farm shrimp. It used to be number one in the world and India came up in a very big way and overtook it. Now, the problem is that because of the FTA, on a lot of the products, Vietnam is having a competitive advantage of almost 6% over us. Our shrimp exports to the EU attracts a customs duty of 6% and they have zero duty,” Irani said.
“The feedback we get from ministry officials – as exporters we can’t talk to the EU officials- and MPEDA is that the FTA is a barter kind of thing. We have seen US President Donald Trump harping on his favourite topic Harley-Davidson motorcycles while referring to trade ties with India. Similarly, the EU talks about dairy: open-up your markets for dairy and we’ll open-up our markets also. And, they know that the dairy sector is a sacred cow so to speak in India. With the government not in a position to do much on the issue, this year we expect our seafood trade with EU to actually come down significantly,” Irani stated.
India’s seafood exports are valued at some Rs 50,000 crore annually.