EU to remain India’s largest trading partner despite Brexit: Envoy

Kolkata, Feb 22 (IANS) Noting that the current bilateral trade between India and the European Union (EU) is of 100 billion Euros, Ambassador of the European Union to India, Tomasz Kozlowski on Friday said the EU would continue to be India's largest trading partner and the main source of Foreign Direct Investment.

"After the Brexit, whether it happens or not, from our point of view the EU is fully committed to implement all agreements which have been reached with the Indian government and Indian entities in all possible fields," Kozlowski told reporters here.

"According to our estimates, after the possible Brexit, the EU will continue to remain the largest trading partner, the main source of FDI and modern technologies," he said.

The envoy said: "EU is fully committed to political declarations, commitments and trade agreements in all fields with India and claimed that the possible Brexit would not have any direct or indirect impact on the bilateral relationship."

However, he noted that the growth rate between India and EU has not been very encouraging in recent years.

"We have much more capacities on both sides to increase substantially in terms of trade and investment. It is a role that Indian government and EU to work on better and more conducive conditions to trade and invest more," Kozlowski said.

Making a veiled reference to the US-China trade war, he said EU is the only entity among the prominent stakeholders in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to have tabled a number of suggestions to improve its functioning.

"In the WTO there are three main trading entities, the EU, United States of America and China while the rest are lagging far behind. The EU is the only one in WTO which has already tabled a number of suggestions to improve the functioning of WTO as it is in favour of open trade. We are very much in touch with the Indian government on possible reforms on WTO," he added.