PIB | 14 May, 2023
The
first Ministerial meeting of India- European Union Trade and Technology
Council (TTC) is taking place in Brussels, Belgium on 16th May 2023.
Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal is one of the
co-chairs along with External Affairs Minister (EAM) and Union Minister
of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
The EU side
is co-chaired by Executive Vice Presidents Mr. Dombrovskis and Ms.
Vestager. The formation of the TTC was announced by the Prime Minister,
Shri Narendra Modi and H.E. Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the
European Commission in New Delhi in April, 2022 with the objective of
creating a High-level coordination platform to tackle strategic
challenges at the nexus of trade, trusted technology and security.
On
15th May 2023, Minister Goyal will have a bilateral meeting with EVP
Dombrovskis followed by Working Group-3 Stakeholder consultations in the
presence of business leaders from both EU and India. The WG3 meeting
focuses on Trade, Technology and Resilient supply chains and would have 6
business leaders from EU and India.
In the afternoon, the Minister will
attend a business event organised by the Federation of Enterprises in
Belgium (FEB) and deliver the keynote address. This meeting would
involve discussion over the economic footprint of Belgium enterprises in
India along with further plans of investments in India.
Besides, the
three Indian Ministers would also call on the Belgian Prime Minister as
well as the President of the European Commission.
On
16th May, Minister Goyal would attend a Stakeholder Event for Working
Groups 1 & 2. Group 1 focusses on digital governance and
connectivity while Group 2 deals with clean and green energy
technologies.
This event will also have about eight business leaders
from each side in attendance who will present their views/ suggestions.
Shri Goyal will deliver a Special Address at this event. This meeting
will also see participation of EAM and EVP Vestager.
Later
in the day, Minister Goyal will attend a bilateral meeting with
European Commissioner for Internal Trade, Mr. Thierry Breton wherein
issues pertaining to the SME sector, start-up ecosystem and e-commerce
will be deliberated upon.
This
would be followed by the first ministerial meeting of the India-EU TTC
which will be attended by the External Affairs Minister, the Minister
for Commerce and Industry and the Minister of State for Electronics and
Information Technology.
The
following three Working Groups under the mechanism will report on
roadmaps for future cooperation between the two sides: (1) Working Group
on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance and Digital Connectivity,
(2) Working Group on Green and Clean Energy Technologies and (3)
Working Group on Trade, Investment and Resilient Value Chains.
The
first ministerial meeting will lay the roadmap for the cooperation
under all three working groups and provide direction to achieve desired
outcomes before the next ministerial meeting in the coming year.
During
the high level meetings with senior leadership of the European Union as
well as Belgium various issues of mutual interest including the ongoing
negotiations for Free Trade Agreement (FTA), addressing issues of mutual
market access, WTO reforms as well as cooperation in several areas of
mutual interests would be discussed.
The
Working Group on Trade, Investment and Resilient Value Chains is
steered by the Department of Commerce and the first meeting of the
working group was co-chaired by Sh. Sunil Barthwal, Commerce Secretary
and Ms. Sabine Weyand, Director General for Trade from respective sides.