Many issues still remained to be resolved through negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK and these would now be taken up only after the conclusion of elections in that country, additional secretary in the department of commerce L Satya Srinivas said on Friday.
The general elections in the UK are scheduled for July 4. The official said the issue around tariffs for whiskey, electric vehicles, and services trade still were to be addressed.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Italy, and both leaders expressed satisfaction with the progress made in the FTA negotiations between the two countries, according to a statement by the ministry of external affairs.
Besides, the eighth round of negotiations on the India-EU FTA are scheduled to be held in Brussels between June 24 and June 28.
The commerce secretary and Director General (Trade) EU had a stock taking meeting in May where issues under various policy areas such as market access in goods and services, investment and government procurement, rules of origin, intellectual property rights among others were discussed,” the official said. India-EU FTA has 23 policy areas.
As for the FTA with the UK, officials had remained engaged when the election process in India was on. A team of Indian officials had visited London in April for another leg of talks on the agreement. Currently the 14th round of negotiations are in progress on India-UK FTA. The India-UK FTA has 26 chapters or policy areas.
While FTAs with UK and Oman are in advanced stages, considerable progress has been made in negotiations with the European Union on the trade deal.
Discussions were also held with the EU authorities on the EU’s carbon tax or Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on imports of seven products including steel and aluminium that are of special interest to India. The tax will come into force from January 2026 and India is seeking exemption from this tax for small and medium companies. It is also asking for charging tax on excess carbon emission during manufacturing on the basis of price of carbon India’s Carbon Trade Exchange and not EU Emission Trading System.
Another official said that the world willingness to have an FTA with India has gone up. “Now they are willing to look at the Indian perspective in a much more favourable manner. Attitudes of other countries to look at China plus story are also visible when we are dealing with these countries for FTA,” he added.
The EU earlier this week sparked-off another trade dispute with China when it announced additional duties of up to 38.1% on imports of electric vehicles. The move from the EU came after the US announced a similar move last month. Through duties both EU and UK want to provide protection to the local industry from the influx of low-cost EV imports from China.
Both India and the UK are important trade partners of India. India’s exports to the UK in FY 24 grew 13. 3% to $12.9 billion. Imports from the UK were down 6% to $ 8.4 billion.
Exports to the EU last financial year grew 1.4% to $ 75.9 billion while imports were down 2.7% to $ 59.3 billion.