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Informist, Tuesday, Mar. 4, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday met UK's Secretary of State for Trade and Business Jonathan Reynolds in London where they discussed the progress on the free trade agreement between the two countries. "Pleased to meet Secretary of State for Trade and Business Jonathan Reynolds in London. Discussed the progress on our FTA talks," Jaishankar posted on X, formerly Twitter.

 

The external affairs minister is on an official visit to the UK and Ireland from Tuesday to Sunday. During the visit, the minister will be holding discussions with his counterpart, UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and will meet several other dignitaries as well as Indian community members.

 

On Feb. 24, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had said that India and the UK have decided to relaunch negotiations for a free trade agreement. The discussion had come to a halt last year as the two nations stepped into their respective election cycles. 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 an 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 had said, responding to a question on the timeline for the conclusion of the trade deal.

 

Under the agreement, India and the UK have much more flexibility to lower tariffs, Goyal had 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." 

 

Along with the trade pact, India and the UK are also negotiating a bilateral investment treaty and a double contribution convention agreement, Goyal had said.

 

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 87.27

 

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

 

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