India interested in reviving FTA talks with EU: Sitharam

India is interested in reviving negotiations with the European Union, but the 28-nation bloc has to respond to issues related to pharmaceutical sector, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today. "I am interested in reviving (talks), but we want answers too," she told reporters here. Expressing disappointment and concern over EU's banning the sale of around 700 pharma products clinically tested by GVK Biosciences, India last month deferred talks with the EU on the proposed the Broad-based Investment and Trade Agreement (BTIA).Sitharaman said India took the decision very much "unilaterally" but after quite a lot of thought on it and added it was India which had emphasised that the chief negotiators should meet at the earliest so that FTA with EU will move forward.  "Unfortunately, the decision which came from the EU to ban nearly 700 Indian drugs that after not getting a response from them, the Prime Minister when he was in France had asked them the question. I had asked my counterpart when I met her in Paris..."... But none of that (efforts) had resulted in complete explanatory position of the EU as to what warranted the banning of drugs on which there is no question about the security, safety of the drugs per se," She said.She further said the senior officials too engaged with the EU in a very detailed way. "...if there were some clinical trials on which they had questions we were asking them about it on which they had not given us a reply and all these drugs are still in use," the minister said. She questioned EU's unilateral step to ban drugs without replying to India's queries on the Indian sector, saying it has established is internationally acceptable quality for  providing life saving drugs at affordable price. "I thought India's USP, India's brand and India's strength was being questioned" by their action, she added. Further replying on the issues to be discussed in the first meeting of  'Strategic & Commercial Dialogue' on September 22 with the US, Sitharaman said greater market access, visa liberalisation and non-tariff barriers would come up among other matters."We are looking at pharma, non-tariff barriers on many merchandise goods and more important movement of natural persons. These are the main issues on which the negotiations would happen. Sitharaman said India believes that there should be free trade "but is it just India which is questioned on free trade. I would like to know how many countries actually completely follow the principles of free trade".Replying to a query on passage of Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, she expressed hope that Congress would review its position and support it because of national interest and its benefits to the economy. She was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of the 'Economist India Summit 2015' here.At the event, when it was suggested that BJP failed to convince Congress on GST, Sitharaman said: "Does it require pushing the Congress. Isn't GST bill their's. You need convincing the age-old party? It just requires all of us to sit and clear the bill and if anybody says it requires a convincing sorry I am not convinced". On the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with the industry yesterday, she said: "He is hands-on with the matters related to the economy... He is not just closely monitoring our work particularly when it comes to managing economy, but he wants to hear it from the industry themselves (also) as to what exactly is worrying them". On Make in India, she said a lot is happening in states  and they are inviting industry to come and invest.  Further on Chinese currency devaluation, she said Indian industry should utilise this as an opportunity."It has made lot of raw materials cheaper for India. We can benefit out of it rather than worry," she added.