India-EU FTA signing slated for December: Austrian Ambassador to India Robert Zischg

NEW DELHI: Austrian Ambassador to India Robert Zischg on Tuesday said that the comprehensive India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has Austrian Ambassador to India Robert Zischg on Tuesday said that the comprehensive India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has officially entered into the critical phase of "legal scrubbing," with the formal signing ceremony expected to take place in Brussels in December this year.entered into the critical phase of "legal scrubbing," with the formal signing ceremony expected to take place in Brussels in December this year.

Noting that the agreement had been long in the making since 2008, the Ambassador said that the January summit served as a major catalyst in bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion.

"Because it [the agreement] is so comprehensive, has been long in the making since 2008. And of course those, this summit has accelerated the conclusion of the negotiations because both sides had to make and made, say, very serious compromises. It is a comprehensive trade deal which means it has a huge effect on businesses, both in the European Union and in India," Ambassador Zischg stated.

The Austrian envoy further affirmed that with negotiations concluded, technical teams have pivoted to the rigorous process of text verification to avoid any regulatory ambiguities before the treaty becomes law.

"Now we are in the phase of this so-called legal scrubbing, which means that you have to go through hundreds of pages," Zischg explained. "This is very important work because you need to hammer out really the very last details because afterwards it needs to be implemented and it needs to be very clear for Indian companies, European companies, what the rules of the game are." (ANI)

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