‘India-UK FTA likely now more than ever’

Despite doubling the Indo-UK trade, the huge amount we do with India has been promised something incomplete. We have 850 Indian companies in the UK and employ more than 116,000 employees, so there is a huge amount of activity going on between India and the UK. Having said that, there are obstacles to our trade, but I am sure that with the harmony between the two sides, if we adopt the path of a free trade agreement, there is no doubt on trade by the mere act of removing those barriers. Will happen.

A modern comprehensive free trade agreement involves much more than the movement of goods – they cover services, they cover digital business, They cover SMEs. Hence the FTA has a large amount of material. The European Union has unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a free trade agreement with India in the last 10–15 years.

I am very hopeful now that we are an independent business nation, we can do things ourselves, we will be able to go ahead with it when the time is right. The possibility of a UK-India free trade agreement is now higher than before. On areas with scope for trade, we know that India is interested in expanding its reach in the UK market across a range of sectors including agri-food, pharmaceuticals; We can see great opportunities

for services in India, some of our professional qualifications to be valid in India, there are many other matters. I think it will go ahead when the time is right. Our economies will benefit from liberalization trade and how will we know about these things, As you know, we do extensive consultations with UK business before looking at the negotiations; Once we gain insights from UK businesses, we will put together our negotiation strategy