Written by Michael Thervil
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Photographer Unknown
It seems like every country is either bracing themselves for the Trump's Administration tariff increases or they are trying to find ways to circumvent the Trump Administration tariffs. Currently it seems as if the E.U. (European Union) and India are no exceptions. Today, India and the EU both took the time out to finalize a free trade agreement between their countries. This was a deal that appears to have been years in the making but has been accelerated since not only since Trump has taken office, but since President Trump has vowed to take America's tits out of the mouth of the E.U. as well as imposing a 25% tariff on goods and products being exported from the E.U. to America.
This is where India sees this as a golden opportunity to directly benefit from the shortcomings of the E.U. For India, they get the opportunity to kill several birds with one stone. On one hand, India satisfies its need for Indian citizens to get more working visas in the E.U., as well as India getting the opportunity to boost its GDP by the increased exportation of its goods, services, and commodities. As a bonus, India also will benefit from the E.U. shortcomings by getting it to lower its tariffs on exportation of those same Indian goods and products. India also wins by getting the E.U. to lower its tariffs on the textile products it exported.
What does the E.U. get in return? The biggest return for the E.U. lies in Indian security guarantees. The question that is being posed to the E.U. is: “Who are they seeking security from?”. Is it America, Russia, or some kind of imaginary threat? Currently no one knows. The E.U. also gets more access to the Indian pharmaceutical industry, Indian manufacturing and additional access to India’s growing tech industry. The E.U. also stated they want India to reduce 100% of their tariffs on European cars, alcoholic beverages, aluminum, steel, and oddly cement.
The free trade deal between India and the E.U. helps the E.U. as they have roughly 5,000-6,000 businesses operating in India. This is speculated to be a tough deal and is predicted that India will be the biggest winner when this deal goes through. And it will go through as the E.U. is borderline desperate for this deal and this is primarily because America is forcing the E.U. to step its game up.
It looks like the sun has set on the European Union.
Comentarios