India unlikely to agree delinking GI for basmati rice from FTA with EU
India is unlikely to accept any EU proposal to separate the basmati rice GI tag issue from the Indo-EU FTA, amid concerns over Pakistan’s GI application complicating trade negotiations.
India will likely not accept any proposal from the European Union to decouple the issue of the protected Geographical Indication (GI) tag for basmati rice from the purview of the Indo-EU free trade agreement (FTA), say analysts.
“Recent reports highlighting concerns over recognising Pakistan’s application for GI tag to basmati rice are likely to complicate the FTA talks. The EU may adopt procedural or diplomatic bridges to avoid the dispute being a dealbreaker and hence look at decoupling it,” said S Chandrasekaran, a historian on basmati GI.
Given the importance the Indian government attaches to agriculture and dairy, New Delhi will be averse to delink the issue of GI tag for basmati rice from the FTA talks.
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Source : The Hindu Business line
