The goal of next month’s visit by UK representatives to India is to wrap up negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two nations. The trade agreement intends to quadruple bilateral commerce between the nations by 2030 and is expected to be completed in four months.
The last deadline for the negotiations was October, but both parties missed it. In the near future, the administration will decide whether these discussions will take place at the ministerial level or the secretary level.
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“It will take 3-4 months of steady negotiations to complete this agreement, with broad understanding over issues such as mobility and short-term work visas to the UK,” a government source told Reuters.
According to a source of India Today, the FTA between India and the UK would be completed by the end of March 2019. A new deadline for wrapping up negotiations has not yet been set, though.
Notably, approximately 14 of the trade agreement’s 26 parts have been agreed upon, and the visiting UK group will work on the remaining chapters. In October, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call congratulating him on his position as UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak expressed his ambition to complete the trade agreement.
