Trade talks set to be revived with 1st major UK ministerial visit
London: The renewed parameters of the India-UK FTA negotiations are set to be defined this week as UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy is expected in India on Tuesday, the first high-profile visit under the newly elected Labour government in Britain.
The FTA talks began in January 2022, under the then Conservative government, with a target to significantly boost the GBP 38.1 billion a year bilateral trading partnership but hit a block in the fourteenth round of negotiations to make way for general elections in both countries.
A report in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ on Sunday quotes a New Delhi source to claim the Indian side would seek clarity on whether the Labour government intends to pick things up from where they were left off or start afresh in some way.
“The trade deal was at the final stage in the previous government, and we want to see whether the Labour government wants to start from where we left it in March before the elections or start afresh from scratch. Our stance on visas for professionals remains unchanged. We are expecting a positive outcome under the Labour government,” the source added.
During his last major intervention on India-UK relations just days before Labour’s landslide electoral victory earlier this month, Lammy told India Global Forum (IGF) in London that he intends to get the deal done as soon as possible.
On visas, which have been touted in the UK media as a major sticking point in the talks, High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami clarified at the same summit that it is not the “priority” for India.
He explained: “What we’re trying to do with this free trade agreement is to increase the depth or the extent of ambition, including in goods and services, that we’d like to offer to the UK.”
“Visas are not the first priority for us in an FTA. We are not looking at the FTA as a means to bring people to the UK, that is not the objective,” he said.
“What we’re looking for is whatever is reasonable within the broad framework of international trade and services under Mode 4 of GATS [General Agreement on Trade in Services of the World Trade Organisation] to be able to have persons travelled for intercompany transfers etc.,” he added.
