India-UK will start talks again on free trade agreement from today; Both countries will brainstorm after about eight months

Both countries are to restart negotiations after a gap of about eight months on the long-suggested free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Britain on Monday. The fresh round of talks will be initiated in New Delhi, under which UK Trade and Commerce Minister Jonathan Reynolds will hold a bilateral meeting with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

According to officials, the talks will be for further progress achieved earlier. The effort through talks is to resolve pending issues and finalize the trade agreement expeditiously. FTA talks between the two countries started on January 13, 2022. A total of 13 rounds of talks have been held till December 2023. The 14th round started on January 10, 2024. It was stopped due to elections in Britain in May 2024.

It is worth noting that the FTA will promote trade and investment between the two countries. Under this, two countries either eliminate or significantly reduce customs duty on maximum products traded between them. Bilateral trade between India and Britain was expected to increase from US $ 20.36 billion in 2022-23 to $ 21.34 billion in 2023-24.