India-UK FTA: Indian delegation to visit London from Feb 21-24 to resolve pending issues

Negotiations for an FTA between India and UK were launched in January 2022

A delegation from India, led by Commerce Secretary Sunil Kumar Barthwal, is likely to be in London from February 21-24 to conduct another round of negotiations on the proposed Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) with United Kingdom (UK) as disagreements remain over certain aspects of market access, an Indian government official told Moneycontrol.

"FTA talks may go on for longer, if outstanding issues remain unresolved even as India looks to conclude negotiations before general elections schedule in April-May 2024", the official added.

According to the official, these outstanding issues include UK's reluctance over India's stand that British automakers have to increase utilisation of local components in their vehicles to 45 percent to get concessions from New Delhi.

India has been mulling Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQ) to meet the UK's demand for a reduction in import duties on electric vehicles from Britain as part of the trade deal. The two sides are also yet to agree on Britain's demand for an import duty cut on its whisky, the official added.

A TRQ allows a lower tariff rate on imports of a given product up to a specified quantity. New Delhi is said to be considering a concessional tariff of 30 percent on 2,500 electric vehicles imported annually from the UK priced above $80,000.

Commerce Secretary on February 15 said that India will safeguard the interest of farmers as well as goods covered under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme while aiming for commercial gains through the proposed FTA with UK.

"Majority of the chapters are either closed or are at advanced stage of negotiations. Recently, a high-level UK delegation visited India (23rd-25th January 2024) and discussions were held at higher level as well as team level to iron out differences," the commerce ministry said on February 15.

The FTA between India and the UK, negotiations for which were launched on January 2022, was originally slated for Diwali 2022. There are 26 chapters in the agreement, which include goods, services, investments and intellectual property rights. So far, 14 round of talks have been conducted between the two sides.