According to reports, India and the UK will sign the long-awaited Free Trade Agreement (FTA) towards the end of this month.
British PM Rishi Sunak is expected to be in India on 28 October, ahead of the England-India Cricket World Cup match, to finalise the deal.
Overview
According to Politico, British officials will brief UK PM Rishi Sunak on the outlines of a UK-India trade deal in the coming days, before he makes a final call on whether to finalise the pact with New Delhi later this month.
British officials will brief Rishi Sunak on the outlines of a UK-India trade deal in the coming days, as he makes a final call on sealing the coveted pact in New Delhi later this month, three people close to the negotiations told POLITICO.https://t.co/GmDa6iMkbx
— Graham Lanktree (@g_lanktree) October 13, 2023
Sunak will visit India at the invitation of Indian PM Narendra Modi. The two leaders had discussed the progress on the FTA during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
The FTA is expected to be the largest post-Brexit trade deal signed by the UK.
The 13th round of the FTA negotiations started on 18 September, and since then, Indian and British delegations have frequented each other’s countries.
Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal will meet Modi this weekend to update him on the progress.
Last week, a team led by Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal was in London, while a delegation of over 30 officials and negotiators from the UK is also visiting New Delhi for discussions.
Moreover, the two countries recently concluded the 13th round of negotiations.
Sunak to Confirm Deal
An Indian government official concerned with the matter told Politico, “We keep telling the UK that we haven’t made such concessions before.”
As per media reports, an Indian official informed that the ball was in the court of Sunak, and India was waiting for the UK to make a final call.
Another senior UK government official said the negotiations were in the final stages this week, with the two sides communicating rapidly.
With the upcoming 2024 Indian elections and the UK general election not so far behind, the political window to close the deal is shortening, according to reports.
A lobbyist following the FTA discussions feels that signing a deal with India has become an “obsession” for the UK government.
If the deal does not get through before India’s political season, it would delay the process by at least a year.
Contentious Issues
India and the UK have been negotiating the FTA talks since early 2021.
However, the path towards signing the deal has been difficult with issues about services, tariffs, intellectual property, and work visas, among other things.
UK delegation will be in India for FTA negotiations. High-level engagements at various levels are ongoing to iron out differences. The majority of the chapters are either closed or are at an advanced stage of negotiations. 134 Round of Negotiations have been continuing since 18th…
— ANI (@ANI) October 13, 2023
As per reports, there have been disagreements regarding work visas for Indians as New Delhi demands better access for its skilled professionals in the UK market. Several Tory MPs have warned against any increase in migration.
Apart from this, there have been contentions regarding the non-inclusion of legally enforceable commitments of labour rights and environmental standards in the deal.
The Services, Rules of Origin, and Intellectual Property Rights were other issues under the deal that saw some resistance.
According to a report by the Financial Express, the difference in Services has been resolved with India agreeing to the UK’s demand of giving national treatment for its services businesses in India.
The two sides have also resolved import duty on whiskey import, with India agreeing to reduce it from 150% to 50% over ten years.
In the auto sector, the tariffs on goods imported from the UK would be such that they do not impact local manufacturing.
Media reports have said that the two sides are attempting to resolve all the pending issues soon so as to strike a deal by the end of October.