Nigel Huddleston, UK minister of state for international trade, is currently in India meeting business people to discuss the potential merits of a trade agreement, according to two people briefed on his activities…reports Asian Lite News
India’s top trade official said that talks with the UK on a trade agreement were “moving very well” and downplayed remaining hurdles on easing temporary work visas for Indians and opening up industries including automotive and spirits.
Piyush Goyal, minister of commerce and industry, also said that India was pushing for transition periods or more market access in some sectors because its economy, currently slightly larger than the UK’s, would far outgrow it in the decades to come.
“There are one or two areas that were a little slow and we are speeding that up,” Goyal said in an interview with the Financial Times. He added that he had spoken to his UK counterpart, Kemi Badenoch, on Tuesday, “and my own sense is that we will see a good outcome soon”.
The proposed trade deal would be one of the most significant concluded by Britain since it left the EU. It would also be significant for India, which last year overtook the UK as the world’s fifth-largest economy and, according to some forecasts, could surpass Germany and Japan to become the third-largest by 2030.
“India will grow from a $3.5tn economy to $35tn,” Goyal said, referring to a target he has said India should aim for by 2047, its centenary of independence. “But with a small population, largely satisfied, what would the UK economy be 25 years from now?”
Officials and diplomats in India have speculated that talks on the proposed trade deal might be concluded by early September, when India will host a G20 summit in New Delhi. Both sides have already missed an agreed deadline of October last year to finalise the deal.
Goyal would not be drawn on a new target date for wrapping up the talks but said there was “nothing which is a deal-breaker” remaining between the sides.
“I’ve given a good deal on Scotch whisky, I’ve given a good deal on automotive,” Goyal said. “We have been very, very open.”
Nigel Huddleston, UK minister of state for international trade, is currently in India meeting businesspeople to discuss the potential merits of a trade agreement, according to two people briefed on his activities.
“Both nations have come to the table with an ambitious set of asks and a willingness to work together towards a mutually beneficial deal,” said a Department for Business and Trade spokesperson. “We continue to negotiate and we will only agree to a deal that is fair, reciprocal, and ultimately in the best interests of the British people and the economy.”
The proposed trade pact has stirred political sensitivities in both countries about migration. Comments by home secretary Suella Braverman last year about immigration by Indians to the UK angered Narendra Modi’s government and temporarily slowed progress on the talks, which began in January 2022.
“I think there was some misunderstanding amongst your political leadership,” Goyal said. “No trade deal talks about immigration.”
He said that India was seeking easier access to the UK for workers in “certain services which can only be done locally”, such as nurses, caregivers and consultants. “We are working together to find solutions.”
Goyal added that India was already offering visas to British businesspeople “to come and run their companies”, giving them access to an Indian economy that is expanding at 6-7 per cent a year.
The official said that given the expected divergence between the economies’ sizes in coming years, India was pushing Britain to bring more “equity and fairness into the deal”, including in the form of transition periods or “disproportionate opening up” for India in some sectors.
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