Negotiators for the India-UK free trade agreement have made substantial progress and the work is on to resolve pending issues as early as possible, a senior official said Wednesday.
Officials from both sides had met last month in London and chapterwise textual negotiations are nearly closed and schedules on goods and services are in an advanced stage of negotiations, he said. “Work is in progress on resolving pending issues.”
The India-UK FTA has 26 chapters or policy areas and the schedules in FTA deal with tariffs which each side will impose on goods from other countries under the agreement. So far India and Uk have held 13 rounds of negotiations on the FTA and the 14th round which started in January is in progress.
On the India-European Union (EU) trade pact, the official said that the eighth round of talks is scheduled from June 24-28 in Brussels. Before the 8th round of talks both sides have decided to meet virtual meetings on some of the chapters that are part of the proposed agreement. The India-Eu FTA has 23 chapters.
On May 7, the stocktaking meeting was held on the agreement between the Indian commerce secretary and EU director General. The last round of talks were completed in February.
The official said that the 8th round of talks on India-Peru FTA is expected to take place in July. The seventh round of talks were held in New Delhi in April. In between the two meetings. Officials from both sides will engage virtually to take the negotiations forward.
Before the 8th round both sides are aiming to exchange offers on goods and services that will give speed to the conclusion of the talks. “Stakeholder consultation is in progress for the same,” the official added.