The 6th round of negotiation on an EU-India Free Trade Agreement began on March 17th, and progress seems challenging in the current economic climate. The agreement is expected to cover  many areas of commerce, including banking services, intellectual property rights, trade in goods and services, investment, competition policy, etc.

The public protests staged in front of the office of the European Commission (EC) are less likely to be impediments to the agreement than the larger commercial interests of the industries most affected by the agreement, especially the banking, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries.

The changes under intellectual property rights rules could be quite contentious as the standard prescribed is likely to be much stricter than that in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). potentially having a significant impact on industries like the country's generic pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Begun in 2007, the EU-India FTA negotiations may eventually provide benefits to both countries, but no one has speculated on when those negotiations may find a successful conclusion.