India signs free trade pact with 4 European countries
The HinduIndia signed a free trade agreement with four European countries — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland — on Sunday, with a goal of reaching $100 billion in investments in India and one million jobs. According to the TEPA’s Chapter 7 that deals with “Investment Promotion and Cooperation”, the two sides had shared “objectives” to increase foreign direct investment from EFTA states into India by $50 billion within 10 years and another $50 billion in the next five years. Periodic assessments “States cannot decide where companies invest,” Norwegian Trade Minister Jan Christian Vestre told journalists in a briefing, explaining that EFTA would nonetheless “work hard “ to ensure the goals were realised. In a written message, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the TEPA a “win-win” agreement for all nations, and said its signing marked a “watershed moment” in ties between India and the European Trading bloc. “The Joint EFTA-India Committee comprising senior government officials will be a form of continuous pressure on India to adopt TRIP-plus like data exclusivity,” MSF Access Campaign’s regional head Leena Menghaney told The Hindu.