Finland's Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Ville Tavio, has pushed for early conclusion of India, European Union Free trade agreement and hoped for "flexibilities"  to reach the "halfway". Speaking to WION's Sidhant Sibal in Helsinki, Minister Tavio said, "looking at the geopolitical turmoil", Finland has been "one of the countries that's been advocating for EU, India FTA for a long time, and we are messaging the EU, by our part, that we need to have certain flexibility when we are building the FTAs". The EU is India’s largest trading partner and the aims of the FTA, among other things, include the reduction of tariffs and greater market access.

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The minister at length spoke on Trump's trade policies. Expressing concerns, he said, "You have to have a certain trust in classical economics, where you understand that you cannot manufacture everything by yourself." The US President, earlier this month, announced reciprocal tariffs across the world, sending shock waves across global markets. He later announced a pause aimed at concluding trade deals with countries and blocs like the EU. Full interview:

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see India, Finland relationship when it comes to trading ties?

Ville Tavio: It's a very prominent relationship. I had the pleasure of visiting Delhi with a business delegation little over a year ago, and I noticed that we have a wide variety of companies that can work together. And of course, we have industries that we are very good at like telecommunications, renewable, circular economy, and innovative technologies that we can share with our countries.

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Sidhant Sibal: You have the DESI initiative, which is digitization, education, sustainability and innovation. Now, Desi is a Hindi word as well. So can you explain for our viewers, the DESI strategy for India by Finland?

Ville Tavio: So, DESI strategy was founded by our regional team, which means digitalization, education and sustainability and innovation. So they wanted to gather our exports under this umbrella. I was also wondering, what does DESI actually mean but it means something very local. It's a common word and a positive word for India Finland cooperation.

Sidhant Sibal: India engaging with Finland. How do you see the Indian investments in Finland? 

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Ville Tavio: I've met some companies that have invested now in Finland, and they were IT companies. You know, we are digital front runners in the world, and we have a very digitized public sector as well. Lot of the services are available in digital format. At the moment, actually, we have been considering, for example, that you can file for divorce digitally. I don't know how common that is, but I think that's a new innovation, but hopefully not file too many divorce.

Sidhant Sibal: What's your view on the India EU Free trade agreement?

Ville Tavio: Looking at the geopolitical turmoil, Finland has been one of the countries that's been advocating for EU, India FTA for a long time, and we are messaging the EU, by our part, that we need to have certain flexibility when we are building the FTAs. Both parties need to come a bit halfway in order to do compromises as well, because unless we do, we are left in a much, much worse condition.

Sidhant Sibal: Donald Trump announced the tariffs. He, of course, has paused the tariffs as well. What's Finland's position on the tariffs that were announced? How disruptive it can be for not only Finland, but the European Union?

Ville Tavio: The amount of tariffs is the same for everyone in the EU and it impacts negatively. Everyone understands that we don't want any excess tariffs. We'd actually rather move to more open trade. Finland is very much advocating that we are a very free trade minded country, ever since we started our industries, and now we are hoping that a deal can be negotiated like the USA probably wants, but we are still looking at the situation. You know, it's changing so rapidly. So every day we have different news but it can definitely disturb European trade, but also global trade. So of course, we are very worried about the disturbances in the global trade, because that will impact everyone as well. You have to have a certain trust in classical economics, where you understand that you cannot manufacture everything by yourself. So I think we cannot abandon this idea. It's the principle of our global growth. And I understand that countries, India as well, as a big country, have a certain interest to keep a lot of manufacturing, all those security related things back home as possible, but you have to be careful. There's a thin red line when it's being crossed, that means the trade is going to stop and then everyone's going to lose.

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see the pause and does it give the EU space to have a trade deal?

Ville Tavio: Yes, that's very much possible, but nothing is certain. At the moment, when these talks have also been opening the negotiations, you can see them as a negotiation, we'll see if it's possible to do a good deal. I mean, a lot of people in the USA would be advocating against taxes as well. I mean the tariffs, but tariffs are taxes for companies eventually, taxes for people, so they have a tendency to increase the inflation as well. 

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see China, US trade war?

Ville Tavio: First of all, we do understand that the USA has a big trade deficit with China, which is not very sustainable. And I think the current model of manufacturing cheap in China is not the most sustainable one on many aspects, but for the European Union, we do share some of those problems for sure, and one of the possible consequences is, of course, that if, China will have over capacity, they could try to sell even cheaper products to EU market. That could cause some market disturbances as well.