Brussels – The fragrant, long-grained Basmati rice, grown in the shared plains of the Punjab region, has unexpectedly become a major flashpoint in Brussels, threatening to derail the European Union’s push for a landmark free trade agreement (FTA) with India.
European Commissioner for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič, is currently caught in a geopolitical dilemma as he attempts to satisfy India’s demand for exclusive recognition of Basmati’s origin while avoiding a costly trade clash with rival exporter Pakistan.
The dispute centres on Geographical Indication (GI) status, a protected designation of origin that carries significant economic weight by preventing counterfeiting and securing market access.
India is aggressively pursuing GI protection for Basmati in the EU as part of the broader trade negotiations, a key objective admitted by Commissioner Šefčovič on September 12th after a round of talks in New Delhi.
“This is, of course, one of the issues that is on the list,” Šefčovič conceded, acknowledging the difficulty of the issue.
The History of the Basmati Claim
The Basmati controversy is deeply intertwined with the historical conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region since the 1947 partition. Ironically, the two nations once collaborated to protect their shared heritage.
In the late 1990s, India and Pakistan successfully teamed up to fight an American company, RiceTec, which had obtained a patent on Basmati, leading to the patent’s revocation in 2001.
Following this success, New Delhi and Islamabad worked together between 2004 and 2008 on a joint application to the European Commission, seeking recognition for their shared claim over the rice grown in the border region of Punjab.
However, the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, which India attributed to Pakistani intelligence services, completely shattered this spirit of cooperation. The joint effort collapsed, opening the door for unilateral actions that have since cornered the EU.
In 2018, India unilaterally submitted a request for GI registration, characterizing the rice by its “exquisite aroma, sweet taste, soft texture, delicate curvature,” and claiming its origin in the Indo-Gangetic plains, which includes the Punjab region.
The Kashmir Trap
Pakistan immediately opposed India’s application, viewing it as an attempt to secure exclusive use of the term “Basmati.” The conflict escalated further in 2023 when Pakistan submitted its own counter-request for GI status.
Pakistan’s application expanded the claimed geographic zone beyond the Indo-Gangetic plains to explicitly include four districts of the disputed Kashmir region: Mirpur, Bhimber, Poonch, and Bagh.
This move transformed a commercial dispute into a direct territorial one, forcing the EU Commission into the impossible position of mediating a conflict it has no mandate to resolve.
EU Walks a Tightrope in Trade Negotiations
The Basmati issue is a difficult flash point in the broader EU-India trade agreement, which the two partners are eager to finalize before the end of the year amid global trade pressures, including the new tariff policies of the Trump administration.
The agreement spans sectors from automotive and dairy products to public procurement.
While sources from both Pakistan and India have publicly denied seeking exclusive GI recognition, the EU holds the negotiating power to force a joint resolution.
The EU can leverage India’s desire to finalize the comprehensive trade deal, which would open European doors for Indian products, to compel a shared GI solution.
