Piyush Goyal, the minister of commerce and industry, met with Jonathan Reynolds, the minister of the United Kingdom, to further the two nations' Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations.
Since January 2022, the UK and India have been negotiating the FTA, and authorities say that the talks are nearing their "closing end."
As planned when negotiations started, both parties are awaiting the conclusion of the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) before signing either of the agreements.
Fourteen rounds of formal negotiations have taken place since the start of the India-UK free trade agreement. Due to elections in both countries, the negotiations were put on hold in May 2024. The United Kingdom's Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, returned to New Delhi in March to continue talks following the Labour Party's election victory.
In addition to FTA and BIT, both parties are negotiating a social security pact known as the Double Contribution Convention pact.
In the FTA, the UK is requesting reduced taxes on whiskey, electric cars, cars, and national treatment for its services industry. In addition to more freedom in granting visas to its service personnel, India wants to increase access to the UK market through its labor incentive manufacturing industry. India has communicated its sensitivities to the UK in the agricultural sector. Officials claim that a large number of delicate topics have already been settled in the talks.
India's fourth-largest export destination is the UK, where shipments are expected to reach $14.5 billion in 2024–2025, up 12.0% annually.
During his trip to Europe, Goyal will also visit the European Union's (EU) headquarters in Brussels and Norway. By the end of this year, India and the EU hope to have finished their free trade agreement negotiations. Ten rounds of FTA talks have been held between the EU and India since they began in June 2022. From May 12 to May 16, the eleventh round of negotiations with the EU will take place in New Delhi.
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The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) includes Norway as a member. In March of last year, India inked a Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) with EFTA. All four EFTA members—Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland—have ratified it, and it is anticipated to go into effect by June. The agreement is currently pending a referendum in the Swiss cantons, which are comparable to Indian states.