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'Enhanced India, UK partnership to reduce market entry barriers'

Enhanced India, UK partnership to reduce market entry barriers
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New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the Enhanced Trade Partnership between India and the UK announced on Tuesday will increase bilateral trade cooperation, reduce market entry barriers and boost job creation in both the countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his UK counterpart Boris Johnson on Tuesday launched an 'Enhanced Trade Partnership' (ETP) to unleash the trade potential between the two economies.

As part of the ETP, India and the UK agreed on a roadmap to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced free trade agreement, including consideration of an interim trade pact for delivering early gains.

"It will enhance bilateral trade cooperation, reduce market entry barriers and boost job creation in both countries. Looking forward to working with Rt. Hon @TrussLiz (UK International Trade Secretary) to further expand and deepen our trade relationship," Goyal said in a tweet.

In a separate statement, the UK India Business Council said free trade agreement is the right eventual goal and it is hugely encouraging that the ETP will address market access barriers and ease of doing business immediately and on an ongoing basis.

UKIBC Group Chair, Richard Heald, OBE said that "today's announcement of a 10-year roadmap working towards an FTA will take the bilateral relationship to the next level. In the immediate term, the focus will rightly be on removing market access barriers."

The bilateral trade between India and the UK stood at $15.45 billion in 2019-20 as against $16.87 billion in 2018-19, according to commerce ministry data.

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