Sunak insists on free trade deal with India which works for all of UK

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he will only secure a trade agreement with India that serves the best interests of the entire United Kingdom, media reports said quoting his spokesperson. Sunak made this statement to his ministers before heading to the G20 summit scheduled to take place in India this week. "He said negotiations around a free trade deal were progressing and that he would only agree an approach which worked for the whole UK," his spokesperson reportedly said.

UK-India free trade deal faces uncertainty

Despite previous assurances from successive governments regarding an FTA between the UK and India by October last year, progress remains elusive. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has now ruled out a swift trade deal with India ahead of the G20 summit in New Delhi. Some officials even believe that the negotiations may extend beyond the upcoming general elections.

“There was talk last year of a deal by last Diwali, but that was only going to happen if it was a shallow deal based around a limited number of goods. Kemi Badenoch [the trade secretary] and Rishi Sunak have decided they don’t want to go down that route and so have taken a deadline off the table,” The Guardian reported citing a government source.

“India wants to do an early agreement on goods, but the risk is that instead of being the start of a wider trade agreement, that becomes the endpoint and the UK doesn’t get any of the more fundamental things it wants,” said another top source in the UK government.

While there have been indications of agreements in specific areas, such as India's willingness to reduce tariffs on scotch whisky in exchange for tax incentives for Indian workers in the UK, precise figures have not been finalised.

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Britain has embarked on a search for diversified global trade relationships after its 2020 exit from the European Union. It comes at a crucial time for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wants to solidify New Delhi's business-friendly image ahead of national elections early next year.

Bilateral trade between India and the United Kingdom rose 16.6 percentyear on year to $20.42 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year ending in March.

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