India-UK FTA: Sixth round of talks concluded last week, seventh round in Jan
- With an intention to expand their bilateral trade both sides formally launched trade negotiations in January 2021
The trade agreement talks between India and the United Kingdom (UK) are gradually progressing as the sixth round of negotiations concluded last Friday. The British government informed on Thursday that the sixth round of talks concluded with detailed draft treaty discussions across 11 policy areas over 28 separate sessions.
The Department of the International Trade of the UK issued a joint statement to inform regarding the conclusion of the recent round of trade deal negotiations initiated by Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal and UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch on 12 December.
"Technical discussions were held across 11 policy areas over 28 separate sessions. They included detailed draft treaty text discussions in these policy areas,” the DIT statement reads.
The seventh round of negotiations between the countries is expected to be held in the United Kingdom and is “due to take place in early January 2023.”
The department informed that the latest round of negotiations was conducted in a hybrid mode and several UK officials travelled to New Delhi for the talks, while others joined the negotiations virtually.
"On 12-13 December, the Secretary of State for International Trade, Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP, visited India to initiate the sixth round of the UK-India free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations. She met with Piyush Goyal, Honourable Minister for Commerce and Industry, Government of India, where they welcomed the newest round of talks and discussed wider trade and investment opportunities for the UK and India. On 16 December 2022, the United Kingdom and the Republic of India concluded the sixth round of talks for a UK-India FTA,” the joint outcome statement said.
The bilateral trade between the two countries currently stands at GBP 29.6 billion. With an intention to expand their bilateral trade both sides formally launched trade negotiations in January 2021 and kept 'Diwali' as the deadline which was pushed due to political developments in the UK and disagreements over certain elements of the trade deal.
UK expects a deal to cut tariffs, open opportunities for UK services such as financial and legal, and allow British businesses to expand into the Indian economy.
(With inputs from PTI)
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First Published:22 Dec 2022, 08:08 PM IST
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