The United Kingdom’s secretary of state for International trade Anne Marie Trevelyan is slated to launch FTA negotiations with India in New Delhi on Wednesday, as reported by the UK government.
The two-day program also includes bilateral talks between the two nations which are slated to be held on Thursday among the commerce and industry minister, Mr. Piyush Goyal and Trevelyan, where there would be discussions held on issues such as green trade and the removal of market access barriers for both UK and Indian companies, said the dept of international trade (DIT). This will then be followed by the confirmation of a beginning to reach an agreement on a new UK-India FTA.
Trevelyan remarked that “The UK and India are already close friends and trading partners, and building a strong relationship is a priority for 2022.”
“I will use my visit to drive an ambitious trade agenda that represents the slopes of Britain’s Indo-Pacific and show how it sees global opportunities as an independent trading nation,” she added.
The UK trade secretary joined Mr.Goyal on Thursday to, co-sponsor the 15th UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO), which included organizations from both UK and India that would gain benefit from the market access commitments currently being strengthened by the new trade partnership between the UK and India
The Dept of International trade anticipates Trevelyan to have a meeting with Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sisalaman, and Environment Minister Bupender Yadav, in order to further discuss the closer bilateral cooperation,
The two-day visit also includes the British minister attending the Defense Industry Roundtable, which is hosted with Defense Minister Dr. Ajay Kumar, in order to promote the future of UK-Indian defenses and strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
In accordance with the figures provided by the dept of international trade, the total trade value of goods and services between the UK and India in 2019 was a whopping GBP 23.3 billion, leading India as UK’s 15th largest trading partner.
Meanwhile, India’s investment in the United Kingdom has supported approximately 95,000 jobs across the nation, creating 15,000 new jobs over the last three years.
The UK government commented on the upcoming negotiation and remarked that a trade consensus could help elevate this further and be of great significance in our ambition to aim for dual trade with India by the year 2030.
“India is one of the world`s largest and quickest developing economies and a formidable new deal might place UK businesses on the front of the queue to export to India`s developing middle class which holds of 1 / 4 of one billion consumers”,
They further stated, “India has been estimated to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2050, with a population much larger than the combined population of the United States and the EU,”