New Delhi, Feb. 8 -- The conclusion of negotiations over the India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) shows that agriculture is no longer a deal-breaker. Both sides carefully manoeuvred around each other's domestic sensitivities while offering tariff reductions to enhance market access.

The agri-food negotiation was complex, covering multiple chapters-including tariffs and non-tariff measures like sanitary, phytosanitary and technical barriers to trade, apart from labour and environmental standards. Given its Green Deal objectives, the EU added a chapter on 'Sustainable Food Systems,' which was missing in its earlier trade agreements with countries like Vietnam.

It would have been a big miss had agri-food trade been left out of the FTA. The ...