EU's green demands are jamming trade talks with India

Published on 25/09/2025 - 14:39 GMT+2

Negotiations implicit the sustainability section of the commercialized statement with India are proving “challenging” the Commission’s main negotiator Christophe Kiener told a gathering of the European Parliament's commercialized committee connected Thursday.

“We volition request to set the attack we usually instrumentality connected commercialized and sustainable improvement to marque definite this is thing India tin unrecorded with,” said Kiener, adding: “Not having a section connected commercialized and sustainability is not an option, but we indispensable besides marque definite that this section cannot beryllium an bare shell.”

The EU and India purpose to reason negotiations connected a commercialized statement by the extremity of the year. On 12 September, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen travelled to New Delhi for a caller circular of talks. However, nary breakthrough was achieved.

One of the main sticking points is the quality colony mechanics the EU seeks to see successful the woody to guarantee India complies with biology standards.

“The conception that determination would beryllium a quality settlement, fto unsocial sanctions applying to those commitments, the thought that the commitments would beryllium legally binding, that civilian nine would beryllium progressive successful the absorption of the statement from that perspective, but besides that those commitments would use astatine the sub-federal level — these are elements that are precise hard for India,” Kiener told MEPs.

India 'not similar New Zealand'

Since its past mandate, the Commission pushes for inclusion of biology provisions successful its commercialized agreements, including mechanisms to oversee their implementation and enforce compliance.

This aforesaid section proved contentious during the EU’s talks with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay — until a woody was yet reached successful December 2024.

The Mercosur statement includes a quality colony mechanics involving an outer reappraisal by autarkic experts and information from civilian society. It besides identifies adherence to the Paris Agreement — the legally binding planetary clime pact adopted successful 2015 — arsenic an “essential element” of the deal. This means the statement tin beryllium suspended if 1 enactment earnestly breaches oregon withdraws from the clime accord.

“We should not autumn into the delusion that India is simply a state similar New Zealand,” Kiener said, referring to the EU-New Zealand woody that entered into unit successful May 2024 and is considered a benchmark for integrating greenish standards into commercialized agreements.

EU greenish legislation, successful peculiar the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) adopted successful 2023, has raised concerns among Indian negotiators, Kiener told MEPs. CBAM introduces a levy connected imports into the EU of definite carbon-intensive goods, a measurement India perceives arsenic perchance protectionist.