Trade, import and export for MSMEs: Women-owned and women-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to benefit from the proposed free-trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK, said UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch in response to a report by the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee responsible for scrutiny of government policy on international trade.
“We have also provisionally closed a Trade and Gender Equality chapter in which we have agreed to undertake cooperation activity. This activity may enhance the competitiveness of women-owned and women-led SMEs, to better enable them to participate in international trade,” said Badenoch.
“I hope that this will encourage businesses of every size and from every region of India and the UK to take advantage of this deal,” he added in response to the question on safeguards available to avoid or minimise potential adverse effects of trade liberalisation on MSMEs and rural communities.
The secretary noted that SMEs make up an important part of the UK and Indian economies and that the two countries have “provisionally agreed a chapter which aims to ensure that SMEs can understand and navigate the other country’s systems and help them to utilise the many benefits of the whole FTA.”
According to the UK government data, bilateral trade with India has already topped £36 billion in 2022, up by 45 per cent from 2021, supporting half a million jobs across both countries. The UK aims to double the bilateral trade with India by 2030 leveraging the proposed trade deal.
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Total UK imports from India amounted to £20.8 billion in 2022, growing by 35 per cent from 2021. India was the UK’s 12th largest trading partner in 2022 accounting for 2.1 per cent of total UK trade. In June this year, India and the UK concluded their 10th round of talks for the FTA and the 11th round of negotiations is due to take place this month.
SMEs account for 99.9 per cent of the business population in the UK. At the start of 2022, there were an estimated 5.5 million SMEs in the country including 5.47 million small enterprises and 35,900 medium businesses while only 7,700 businesses were large, as per the UK’s official statistics.