India-UK relations: Today, UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch will go to New Delhi to meet with her Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal for the first time in person to discuss the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). She will formally open the sixth round of trade talks, the first one since July.
Additionally, this will be the first conference since Rishi Sunak became leadership of the British government.
Boris Johnson, a former British prime minister, set a lofty goal in April to reach an FTA with India by Diwali in October. However, the deadline was missed as a result of his resignation in July and the political unrest in the UK.
According to Reuters, the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has stated that he is keen to reaching an agreement with India but will not forgo quality.
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In September, Kemi Badenoch was given the position.
Prior to the sixth round of formal negotiations, which are slated to take place this week, she will speak to both senior negotiation teams.
Badenoch said in a statement, “I’m here in New Delhi to kickstart round six of UK-India trade negotiations and meet my counterpart (Commerce and Industry) Minister Goyal in person to drive progress on this agreement.”
“Both nations have come to the table with the very highest of ambitions and a willingness to work together towards a mutually beneficial deal. I’m excited about the opportunities we can create for British business,” she continued.
She further added, “India and the UK are the 5th and 6th biggest economies in the world. We have a long-shared history and are in pole position to do a deal that will create jobs, encourage growth and boost our 29 billion pounds trading relationship.”
The FTA’s goal, according to the UK government, is to reach a deal that lowers tariffs and creates opportunities for UK service industries including finance and law. The move, it was noted, will make it simpler for British companies to sell to India’s economy, which is predicted to become the third largest in the world by 2050 and have a middle class of 250 million people.
More visas for Indian citizens to study and work in Britain would be a higher priority. Suella Braverman, the British interior minister, previously created controversy by asserting that Indians make up the majority of migrants who overstay their visas.
In order to better understand their requirements for a “modern UK-India trading relationship,” the UK trade secretary will also meet with Indian business leaders. A meeting with envoPAP, a UK business investing over £10 million in India to build a plant manufacturing Fairtrade paper and packaging products, is part of this process.
By the middle of the next decade, the Indian economy is expected to have grown by over 9 billion pounds, according to the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT).
Pret A Manger, a restaurant brand, and fintech pioneers Tide and Revolut were among those with expansion ambitions for India, which the government highlighted in order to demonstrate the breadth of UK companies already benefiting from the strong trade ties.
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Pret is planning to launch its first branch in India early in 2023
Following a franchise agreement with Reliance Brands, the well-known British coffee and sandwich chain Pret is planning to launch its first branch in India early in 2023. The chain will debut in Mumbai as the first of 100 planned locations across the nation.
According to Pano Christou, CEO of Pret A Manger, “bringing Pret’s freshly cooked food and organic coffee to more people across the world is a critical component of our transformation strategy, and I’m happy to be introducing Pret in India.”
He continued, “We see an amazing opportunity to extend the Pret brand across India while also contributing something truly distinctive to its food-to-go industry. There is a great desire for fresh food and novel eating experiences.
In contrast, Revolut, a British banking app, is reported to have created more than 300 jobs in India and has ambitions to add hundreds more in the future. It has already made a USD 46 million investment in the nation and just inaugurated its Bengaluru, India, headquarters. It now plans to introduce “bespoke” financial products, many of which are expected to be novel in the nation.
According to PTI, DIT stated that an India-UK FTA will result in advantages for companies like Pret, including “reduction in red tape, more affordable cross-border trade, and increased opportunities to work with Indian companies and suppliers”.
Andy Burwell, International Director at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said, “The UK-India FTA remains a top priority for the industry. We applaud the Secretary of State and Prime Minister for listening and prioritising substance over pace. Trade is a fundamental driver of growth and India will be an important partner and market as the UK looks to escape stagflation, attract skilled labour, and deliver on the green transition.”
Currently, the bilateral commerce between the UK and India is estimated to be worth roughly 29.6 billion pounds annually. FTA talks were formally initiated by both parties at the beginning of this year, and former British prime minister Boris Johnson set a Diwali deadline for its conclusion.
Due to the nation’s political unrest, the discussions were postponed. Sunak, the new British prime minister, promised to complete the agreement as soon as feasible.
Sunak stated to the House of Commons last month: “I discussed the free trade agreement with India, and both the Prime Minister of India and I committed our teams to working as quickly as possible to see if we can bring a successful conclusion to the negotiations.”
He said, “Without negotiating all these things in public, I am pleased that the majority of the substantive negotiation conversations were concluded by the end of October. We will now work at pace with the Indian teams to try to resolve the issues and come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.”
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