With the 11th round of negotiations on India-UK Free Trade Agreement in the final leg, commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal will leave for London on Monday for a two-day visit to push for further progress.
The commerce secretary’s visit will follow commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to the UK last week as the 11th round of negotiations started.
The 11th round of negotiations started on July 10 and are expected to go on till July 19.
“The visit was strategically timed, coinciding with the critical stage of ongoing negotiations, and proved to be instrumental in moving the discussions forward,” according to the statement issued after Goyal’s visit.
An official said both the visits are important as talks are at a crucial stage.
Both sides are keen to conclude the negotiations, which were launched in January 2021, at the earliest after the October 2022 deadline was missed.
Last week, the commerce secretary had said that agreement on many pending areas of discussions is within reach.
He had said that of the 26 chapters, negotiators have been able to close discussions on 14 areas and are closing in on agreement on five more including labour, environment and digital trade.