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Informist, Saturday, May 23, 2026

 

--Govt source: UK trade minister to visit India Jun 2 for FTA discussions 

 

NEW DELHI - The UK Trade Minister Peter Kyle will visit India on Jun. 2 for further talks on implementing the free trade agreement signed between the two countries, a top commerce ministry official said Saturday. A US delegation will also visit the country in June for further talks towards a trade deal, the source said.

 

The rollout of India's trade deal with the UK is facing a delay because of Britain's new curbs on steel imports starting Jul. 1, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said last week. The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, signed in July, was expected to be operationalised in May. The UK trade minister is likely to visit without a delegation, the official said, which may signal an announcement on the deal becoming operational.

 

Separately, India is in no hurry to strike a deal with the US and is looking to gauge the tariffs that the world's largest economy will impose on other countries in the region, the source said. Currently, the US imposes a uniform 10% tariff on most imports from across the globe after its Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs in February. India's exports to the US had attracted a punitive 50% tariff since August, which were negotiated down to 18% in the first phase of the trade agreement.

 

The initial agreement has been voided by the change in the tariff situation, which has prompted a fresh round of negotiations, the commerce ministry official said. They did not want to speculate whether a tariff rate of under 10% was possible under the final deal. An Indian team had last visited the US in April for trade talks.

 

"Why will we want to pay a higher tariff than 10%, unless we know that there is a big tariff increase coming and we want to avoid it?" the official said. "We don't need to set a benchmark (on tariffs in the region), it's not a great strategy when I don't know what others will be getting."  End

 

Reported by Aaryan Khanna

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

 

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