Indian team to head to UK this week to resolve pending FTA issues

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak

A team from India's commerce ministry will head to United Kingdom (UK) this week as both sides look to iron out outstanding issues pertaining to the proposed Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) between them, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said on April 15.

"A team from India is going this week to the UK and some are already there. This is a continuation of the 14th round of talks," Barthwal added.

Separately, the ministry on April 15 said, India and UK have made "good progress and majority of difficult issues are towards resolution."

"A couple of key priority issues to seal the deal are being ironed out to have a balanced outcome," the ministry added.

Negotiations between India and the UK for a trade agreement began on January 2022 with an initial deadline of Diwali 2022. There are 26 chapters in the pact, which include goods, services, investments, and intellectual property rights.

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On March 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK counterpart Rishi Sunak reaffirmed their commitment to work towards an "early conclusion of a mutually beneficial FTA."

Moneycontrol reported last month that though India and UK are going the extra mile to resolve their differences in a bid to close negotiations over the proposed FTA at the earliest, sealing the deal before Lok Sabha elections conclude looks difficult.

Both sides are still looking to agree on matters around market access with one of the sticking points being London's reluctance over New Delhi's stand that British automakers have to step up the utilisation of local components in their vehicles to 45 percent to avail of concessions in India.

Recently, a team from UK visited India from March 5-7 to negotiate on outstanding issues.

For the proposed FTA between India and European Union (EU), the eight round of talks is being planned in May or June 2024 in Brussels.

India and EU completed the seventh round of negotiations in February 2024.