Overview

• Senior officials start five days of negotiations on October 6 in Brussels for the 14th round of the proposed free trade agreement.
• Eleven of 23 chapters are provisionally closed, but the 13th round yielded little movement on market access, tariff cuts, rules of origin and IP standards.
• EU Ambassador Hervé Delphin calls the talks challenging yet says the bloc remains ready to conclude a meaningful package toward a mutually beneficial deal.
• An Investment Protection Agreement is being negotiated alongside the FTA to provide a predictable environment for investors, with shared principles such as safeguarding the right to regulate.
• The stakes are sizable as the EU is India’s top trading partner, total trade including services is about EUR 180 billion, and EU firms in India generated EUR 186 billion in turnover and around 3 million direct jobs in 2024.