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Informist, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025

 

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--Minister Goyal: Decided to relaunch FTA talks at meeting with UK trade secy
--CONTEXT: Goyal's comments in joint press meet with UK trade secy Reynolds
--Minister Goyal on India-UK FTA: To build upon groundwork of previous talks
--Minister Goyal on timeline for India-UK FTA: To have speed but not haste
--Minister Goyal: In active talks with UK over FTA, investment treaty
--Minister Goyal: Immigration issue not to be part of FTA talks with UK
--Minister Goyal:Our tariffs aim to protect India from non-transparent econs
--Goyal: India, UK have much more flexibility to significantly cut tariffs
 

 

NEW DELHI – India and the UK have decided to relaunch negotiations for a free trade agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said after a meeting with UK's Secretary of State for Trade and Business Jonathan Reynolds on Monday in New Delhi. The discussion came to a halt last year as the two nations stepped into their respective election cycles.

 

The next round of negotiations, which will resume on Tuesday, will build upon the groundwork that the two sides have completed previously, Goyal said in a joint media briefing with Reynolds. The two sides had held 14 rounds of negotiations till last year, in which they nearly closed chapter-wise textual negotiations, and discussions on goods and services were at an advanced stage, according to the Indian commerce ministry.  

 

India and the UK had launched negotiations for a free trade pact in 2022 under UK's former prime minister Boris Johnson, and had initially set October of that year as the deadline for conclusion of the agreement. However, political developments in the UK delayed the discussions.

 

While the discussions for the pact are in the advanced stage, neither side has given a timeline for the conclusion of the agreement. "It's always good to conclude fast, so we will have speed but not haste," Goyal said, responding to a question on the timeline this time for the conclusion of the trade deal.

 

Under the agreement, India and the UK have much more flexibility to lower tariffs, Goyal said. "That's what the whole free trade agreement is all about. Many of the tariffs that India has are really to protect us from non-market economies, non-transparent economies." 

The trade agreement with the UK would entail provisions for business work visa, but there would be no discussions over immigration, Goyal said. "That should not be confused to be immigration."

 

Along with the trade pact, India and the UK are also negotiating a bilateral investment treaty and a double contribution convention agreement, Goyal said. "All three are in parallel and conjoined with each other."  

But it is not necessary that the discussions for all three pacts would conclude together, Goyal said. The Indian finance ministry is spearheading the negotiations for the bilateral investment treaty.

The two sides started negotiations for a double contribution convention agreement last year, Goyal said. "In order to bring balance in the opportunities and benefits for both the countries, India had flagged the issue of giving an attractive services offer in return of an attractive social security agreement."

India and the UK will move forward with the negotiations, keeping in mind the sensitive sectors on both the sides, UK's Trade Secretary Reynolds said. "So we can have a mutually beneficial agreement."

 

The UK was India's 16th largest trade partner in 2023-24 (Apr-Mar) with a bilateral trade of $21.34 billion. In FY24, India exported goods worth $12.92 billion to the UK and imported goods worth $8.41 billion.  End

 

US$1 = INR 86.70

 

Reported by Krity Ambey

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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