INTERVIEW - EU, India not ready for trade deal - Swedish PM

A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the EU, India's biggest trade partner, has been in the works since 2007. According to EU estimates, the pact could help bilateral trade cross $237 billion by 2015.

The EU has pressed India on its environmental performance, intellectual property rights and sensitive topics such as child labour before sealing a pact. India wants to keep all that off the table.

A deal will not be ready before Sweden's EU presidency ends this year, Reinfeldt said in an interview on a visit to India.

"As of now, we don't think it's possible with India," Reinfeldt said, when asked whether a deal could proceed without agreement on issues such as climate change.

"You can't take away essential parts ... to us, everything has to be in place and that's basically what we are negotiating."

In the backdrop of uncertain progress on the Doha global trade talks, India has pushed ahead with free trade agreements with countries such as South Korea and the ASEAN bloc of Southeast Asian nations.

Exports to the EU jumped 29 percent from the previous year to $34.5 billion in 2007-8, according to government data.

An EU commerce deal could improve market access for goods and services, but Trade Minister Anand Sharma this week appeared to draw a line in the sand on whether anything other than trade was open to debate.

"No extraneous issues can be factored in," Sharma told reporters on Wednesday. "We are very clear about it. There are forums to discuss such factors."

India, the world's fourth largest polluter, will not commit to legally binding emissions targets under a new U.N. climate deal, which is set for negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

Reinfeldt said he would like to see commitment on Copenhagen from heavy emitters such as the United States, but developing countries such as India, China and Brazil should also put the brakes on their rising emissions.