Finance
New Delhi: India and the United Kingdom concluded the third round of talks for the proposed free trade agreement in New Delhi on Friday, covering important ground. The two parties hope to sign the interim agreement by October.
“Third round of India-UK FTA negotiations concluded in Delhi with two weeks of intense discussions, teams working extra hours to make good progress in policy areas resolving to continue positive conversations,” India’s chief negotiator Nidhi Mani Tripathi tweeted on Sunday.
The third round of talks was supposed to focus on issues such as tariff concessions on alcoholic beverages and professional mobility, among other things.
In the previous two rounds, India and the UK made significant progress, with the UK agreeing to eliminate duties on rice and textile goods, and India likely to allow duty-free entry of British apples, medical devices, and machinery manufactured in the UK.
The interim or early harvest agreement pact aims to cover 65 percent of goods and up to 40 percent of services, with the full agreement covering 90 percent of goods.
The agreement is expected to double bilateral trade between India and the United Kingdom to around $100 billion by 2030.
Another person familiar with the development said that an agreement on mutual recognition of higher education qualifications is also expected.
During the two rounds of trade talks that began in January of this year, India and the United Kingdom were able to close four of the FTA’s 26 chapters.
The India-UK FTA is also expected to benefit domestic textile industries. Exporters told that the UK is one of the most important markets for them, along with the UAE and Australia, where India has duty-free access.
Source:Mint
