New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, who is on a two day visit to the UK, said a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK could be ready by Diwali without the need for an interim early harvest agreement. The minister, who arrived in London from the World Economic Forum in Davos, reviewed the progress ahead of the fourth round of negotiations expected to take place on June 13 in the UK, reported news agency PTI.
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At a curtain raiser event on Thursday for the annual UK-India Week by India Global Forum (IGF) scheduled from June 27, Goyal hinted at the FTAs concluded with the UAE and Australia. “Canada is progressing well towards an early harvest agreement. With the UK, we had agreed to do an early harvest agreement – basically, to grab the low-hanging fruits and leave the more difficult elements for the next stage and give the people of both countries the confidence that this agreement is a win-win,” the minister said.
“But the way things are progressing, we’ll actually land up doing a full FTA with the UK by Diwali. I have had very good meetings on it,” he added.
What is the timeline of the FTA agreement with the UK?
At the time of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to India in April, the timeline for the FTA draft was set for October.
In fact, Indian High Commissioner Gaitri Issar Kumar informed at the event that Prime Minister Johnson has already invited Indian counterpart to visit the UK for signing the draft agreement once it is ready later in the year.
On asked about the issues in regard to such a tight timeline, Goyal said: “Our approach is that we are very honest and upfront in our constraints, yet willing to be sensitive to the concerns of the other country.”
“You are actually writing out the destiny of your trading relations between two nations for the next 30 or 50 years. Particularly in this current world where there is so much dichotomy between countries, so much distrust… the world has realised that they would rather work with a trusted partner like India,” the minister said added. “When you do a trade deal, you are crystal gazing 30-50 years into the future, so you have to be very careful. I can’t afford to make a mistake… everybody has to be very cautious. Lots of modelling has to be done,” he said.
In his discussion with the UK counterpart, Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan both spoke about carrying forward the ongoing FTA negotiations to further boost the India-UK trade and investment partnership .
“We discussed progress of ongoing trade talks; opportunities to unlock the full potential of our trade and commercial relationship already worth over 24 billion pounds; and opening new markets for businesses in both the UK and India,” said UK Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
The total trade between both nations stood at $16 billion FY 2021-2022 (Apr-Feb). The UK was India’s 17th largest trading partner during the period of FY 2021-2022 (Apr-Feb), according to latest official figures available on the website of the Indian High Commission.