Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said it would be difficult to conclude a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) unless they exclude the climate regulations from the negotiations.
He also said that Europe today is in a "crisis" because of the severity of the non-tariff barriers that it has created and if those are not addressed, it would be difficult to trade with them.
Though the minister said that the two sides will be able to complete most of the discussions quite amicably but there will be two areas on which the European Union will have to rethink.
"One is these non-trade issues (climate regulation) that seek to superimpose into trade agenda...The European Commission will need to reflect on it. They'll find it very difficult to get a trade agreement with anybody whatsoever.
"Any self respecting, decent country cannot sign up on commitments which are irrational, beyond the realm of trade and where the rest of the world has been responsible for the problem in the first place, and have sought to be put on our head as if it's our responsibility to resolve you," he said here at an event.
On the non-tariff barriers in Europe, Goyal said unless Europe recognizes the path that they are going downhill with, "I see serious difficulty” for Europe to be able to do trade with any country, forget India.
The minister said that he is a worried man for the "very future" of the EU and their businesses, given the kind of "grammatically" difficult non-tariff barriers that they have set up both for their own businesses and for the rest of the world.
Goyal added that he is just trying to give a wake-up call for Europe and they have to address these barriers and regulations.
"...every business in Europe is in distress because of these non-tariff barriers and regulations. Unless the EU Union sits down and addresses this, I can see a severe decline in the EU and its future with self-imposed injury. At the end of the day, what will happen is Europe will be an island in between. The rest of the world will trade with each other, and Europe will have to look after itself," he said.
