New Delhi / London: India and United Kingdom (UK) officially launched talks of free trade agreements in New Delhi on Thursday with the aim of wrapping an agreement at the end of the year that can increase annual bilateral trade with billions of pounds.
The UK has made an agreement with India, one of the post-brexit priorities as, free from the European Union General Trade Policy, the ministers saw a trade policy of trading more rapidly around the Indo-Pacific region.
Meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, Trade Minister Piyush Goyus and his colleague Anne-Marie Trevellyan said they would also launch the “early harvest” or the interim trade agreement in the scope in the next few months, before completing a free trade agreement.
“This is an opportunity that we must take to direct our partnerships along the reciprocal welfare path for decades to come,” Trevelly said.
Britain said the agreement could almost double the export of England to India, and in 2035 increases the total trade of 28 billion pounds ($ 38.3 billion) per year.
The total trade in 2019 was worth 23 billion pounds, according to British statistics.
India and former British colonial powers have shared strong trade bonds, and more than one million people from India live in England after decades of migration.
India looks for greater opportunities to live and work in the UK, and every trade agreement can depend on relaxing rules and reduce costs for Indian students and professionals who go to England.
However, Goyal said that sensitive problems would not be a road barrier because both countries would not make them the conditions needed for the trade agreement.
“No one has always been a breakwater of the agreement in this agreement,” said Goyal.
“And I won’t think there is a way for anyone to worry about any country’s sensitive problems, because both parties have agreed that sensitive problems are not our priorities,” he added.
The ministers want to take advantage of the wealth of middle class India and their tastes for Premium English products such as Scotch whiskey.
They also hope that India can be a large customer of the green technology industry, and that the existing service sector trade route can be strengthened.