<div>Getting India and the European Union (EU) back to the talking table was an important element of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit. Talks led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Merkel failed to break the ice on a lingering spat between New Delhi and the EU. </div><div> </div><div>Modi asked Merkel to help overturn EU bans on 700 GVK Biosciences generic drugs. Most of these drugs are available and have been used for several years without any complaint in several EU states. A few of these drugs are, however, disallowed in some markets. Experts describe the EU move as a part of an offensive against India's $15 billion generic drugs industry.</div><div> </div><div>The two leaders, however, also indicated a desire to revive India-EU free-trade-area negotiations — a market-opening pact to boost bilateral commerce on which talks began in 2007.</div><div> </div><div>The stalled talks, not held since 2012, directly hurt India's efforts to increase exports to the EU because the grouping, through the European Commission, negotiates on trade and tariffs only collectively: the individual members can't strike bilateral deals.</div><div> </div><div>Merkel's visit comes as India is looking for foreign technology and aid to boost economic growth and provide jobs for the approximately 12 million people who enter the labour force every year. While Germany is looking to expand its presence in India to compensate for the global slowdown. </div><div> </div><div>The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) wrote to the EU Trade Commissioner to intervene when the ban on around 700 pharmaceutical products was formalised in May. There was no response, so the government cancelled an August 28 meeting to discuss restarting talks. As of now, both sides have missed at least four deadlines to clinch a free trade accord, called Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement, even after 15 rounds of talks.</div><div> </div><div>Given the current economic scenario, Europe has been desperately seeking greater access to India's market. In April, during his Germany trip, Modi had told the German chancellor that he was willing to try and clinch a Trade and Investment Agreement between India and the EU by the end of the year.</div><div> </div><div>Trade between India and the EU has remained at around $82 billion for the past two years. In 2013, the EU as a bloc was India's largest trade partner, a position since captured by the Gulf Cooperation Council, which consists of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Trade with the GCC now stands at $132 billion, according to the foreign office.</div><div> </div><div>So far, Modi is leaving no stone unturned to put pressure on the EU leadership into accepting some of India's concerns. Modi had asked French President Francois Hollande and recently Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny for help. Modi is also expected to articulate India's concerns when he meets British Prime Minister David Cameron during a visit to London in November.</div><div> </div><div>"Individual European nations can't decide what the EU should do, but heavy lifters like Germany, France and the UK can and do influence the politics of the grouping," Yogendra Kumar, a former Indian diplomat who has served in Brussels, told <em>The Telegraph</em>.</div><div> </div><div>Germany, Europe's largest economy, has seen its imports to India dip by 18 per cent — from $15.6 billion in 2011-12 to $12.7 billion in 2014-15 — since the last India-EU leaders' summit in 2012.</div><div> </div><div>Merkel's personal interest in bridging differences between India and the EU is not new. In 2013, the EU was demanding duty-free import of automobiles by India. But ahead of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Germany that year, Merkel leant on the EU to drop its demand. Germany was the biggest car exporter to India from within the EU.</div><div> </div><div>"It's an issue close to her heart. I think it is high time that the suspended talks should be resumed," said Martin Ney, German Ambassador to India.</div>
