India and the European Union will be entering a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of this year, a senior EU official said in the southern metropolis.
Daniele Smadja, Ambassador, Head of European Commission Delegation to India, said the exact date for signing the pact would be decided after the final round of talks in March.
Smadja, who was here Monday to inspect EU-sponsored projects, said "FTA will be a boost in the overall relationship especially in the bilateral trade and commerce between India and European nations," she said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso would be finalising the agreement soon.
Seven rounds of discussion had been held on the subject so far and the pact the final round of talks in March would be crucial as a decision was expected to be clinched there, she said, adding "We are pretty close to that".
Terming India for its fast emergence as a major power in the region, Smadja said the country figured in the EU's list of significant trading partners as one of the first ten nations. "Once the FTA is finalized, business between the two will go up several folds."
She said in recent years trade between India and EU countries had been growing at 16 per cent a year compared to EU's overall growth rate of trade of ten per cent on account of the growth performance of the Indian economy.
As the negotiations on FTA, which began three-year-ago,were progressing in slow pace, the EU and India held a three-day-discussion in New Delhi last month.