NEW DELHI: India and the UK are expected to restart the negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement in October as the new Labour government in the island nation is currently being briefed about the status of the talks by their officials, commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said Tuesday.
The two sides have already taken stock of the progress of talks at secretary and minister levels.
“The briefings are going on in the UK…they are briefing their new ministers and based on that, the negotiations will start. We are hoping that in October, the negotiations should resume,” Barthwal told reporters here.
India and the UK have been negotiating an FTA since January 2022. So far 14 rounds of talks have taken place to arrive at the common ground on different areas that impact trade like rules of origin, tariffs, dispute settlement, intellectual property, government procurement, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, competition and trade facilitation among others. The FTA has in all 26 chapters or policy areas. Apart from the FTA both India and UK are also negotiating a bilateral investment treaty.
The 14th round was paused because of the elections in the UK. Post elections a virtual meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Jonathan Reynolds, UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade to discuss next steps on the pact.
On the FTA with the EU, Barthwal said the 9th round of talks will be held from September 23 to September 27 in New Delhi. During the talks both sides will discuss core trade issues covering goods, services, investment and government procurement. The discussion would also focus on rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade and trade remedies
Along with the issues covered by the FTA, the Indian side will also discuss EU’s sustainability measures like Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, deforestation and other related issues.
On talks with Australia to expand the existing trade pact, the secretary said that the two sides are looking at ways to conclude the negotiations before December.
India and Australia have implemented an interim pact, officially dubbed as Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) in December 2022 and now in negotiations to expand its scope and convert into Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
On India-Bangladesh proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the secretary said there are some problems in the neighbouring country as of now.
“So we are waiting and watching and we will look at it,” he said.
Source: The Financial Express
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