European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht called on Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma in New Delhi Thursday.
During the meeting Sharma said, "India-EU Summit will further strengthen the two large economies of the world and the proposed BTIA will give a fillip to an expanded and more diversified trade between the two sides."
Both the leaders met individually and with a delegation to bring convergence to various issues and iron out differences on trade related issues.
Noting that the EU is an important trading partner of India and as a region, Sharma claimed in a statement by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, "EU is India's 3rd largest trading partner in the world. The exports growth is 30% in 2010- 11 which accounts for 53.494 billion US $. EU as a region is the largest investor in India with FDI from EU totalling US $ 33.24 billion during the period April 2000 to November 2011."
Indian investments in EU nations have been U.S. $30 billion. The importance of trade from India's perspective is that India's export to the EU was 18.64 percent of its global trade during 2010-2011 and India's imports from EU were 12.05 percent of its global trade in 2010-2011, added the statement.
