On Monday morning, the high command officials of India and UK stated that they are going to conduct 5th round of talks for a trade agreement in Delhi that will run on the basis of give-and-take policy. The leaders of both the nations have already had talks and now target to seal the negotiations by October’22.
According to a joint statement, both the nations successfully conducted the 4th round of talks pertaining to India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on June 24. During the ongoing 4th agreement talk, a detailed draft treaty text was advanced across the majority of chapters”. The statement further read that “technical experts from both sides came together for discussions in 71 separate sessions covering 20 policy areas.”
Amidst the global pandemic at pace, the fourth round of talks were majorly held in a hybrid mode; a few teams have met in London, other than that, officials had conducted it virtually. As per the statement, “the fifth round of negotiations is due to take place in July 2022 in New Delhi.”
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During the summit held in New Delhi, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and UK counterpart Boris Johnson together stated that they expected a “majority of talks on a comprehensive and balanced free trade agreement”. Johnson further hinted that the talks are to be negotiated by end of October and that the FTA might multiply trade and investment by the end of the decade.
In the recent months, India has closed trade deals with other nations such as Australia, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand. Stating them as examples, Boris Johnson acknowledged India’s efforts towards containing issues such as high tariffs. He also hinted towards the “massive push” from both the governments to get the FTA deal signed successfully.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and its counterpart The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have formed an India-UK Business Commission to multiply the collaboration on cross-industry trades and push them further over time.
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The renewable sector of UK is planning to involve India’s role to transition between clean energy under the propose FTA deal. Towards the same, India has assured 50% of its energy sources getting extracted from renewable sources by 2020. It further pledged towards reducing tariffs on green exports like onshore and offshore wind energy, and solar energy that carries high potential for growth in India.
