NEWS
INDIA PREPARED TO CUT WINE & SPIRITS TARIFFS FOR EU WHEN FREE TRADE TALKS RESUME
By Siulan Law Mathews DipWSET
10-5-2021
Credit: Naveed Ahmed/Unsplash
As India and the European Union agreed to resume talks on the proposed free trade agreement after 8 years of suspension, Indian news media reported that India is prepared to lower duties on EU wines, in exchange for data-secure nation status to open up opportunities for out-sourcing.
The current customs duties on wines and spirits range from the minimum of 40.8 percent to as high as 150 percent. Earlier, the EU had wanted this to be reduced to nil over five years.
The EU has continuously pushed India to for greater market access and lower import duties on its major exports, wines and spirits are among them.
Indian media reports said their officials are drawing up the first set of proposals two days after India and the EU agreed to resume talks on the proposed Free Trade Agreement.
"We will be reworking our proposal to offer a differential duty structure on wines. To begin with, it will have a relatively high duty on low-cost wines. For more expensive wines, the tariff can be lowered (over a period),” Indian media quoted a senior official as saying. Earlier, India had proposed that whisky bottled in India would attract lower duty.
New Delhi remains hopeful that its concessions, especially on alcohol, may sway the bloc, which is looking for more market access, particularly after USA imposed 25 percent duties on EU wine and spirit exports back in October 2019.
“The Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins - the largest association for the European wine industry - has therefore advised their governments to actively start looking to expand the list of export destinations. The pressure on them is increasing and India has a robust, growing middle class with interest in European products,” the senior Indian official was quoted as saying.
Apart from wines and spirits, the EU was also seeking to significantly lower customs duties on automobiles of which concessions are more difficult to make.
Talks between EU and India were frozen in 2013 over differences including tariff reductions, patent protection, data security and the right of Indian professionals to work in Europe.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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