Bengaluru/New Delhi The third round of India-UK Free Trade Agreement talks begins in New Delhi on Monday, with a focus on resolving key issues, particularly demands that India reduce its tariffs on alcoholic beverages and processed food. Take the cut, and the UK should allow more Indian professionals to stay. and work in that country.
Both sides aim to complete the deal by October.
India and Britain have gained significant ground in the last two rounds, with Britain agreeing to end duties on Indian rice and textile items, while India is set to allow duty-free entry of British apples, medical equipment and machinery. For officials familiar with the discussion.
During his two-day visit to India last week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the deal could boost India-UK bilateral trade to around $100 billion by 2030. The interim or early harvest agreement aims to cover 65% of goods and up to 40% of goods. % of services, expected to go up to 90% in full agreement with coverage in goods.
Another person said that mutual recognition of higher education qualifications has also been agreed upon. During the two rounds of trade talks that began in January this year, India and the UK have managed to close four of the 26 chapters in the FTA.
Questions from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the British High Commission in New Delhi remained unanswered till press time.
“India wants to have greater access to its professionals in the service sector in the UK. India has some ambitions under the natural persons movement. We are looking for movement of professionals like nurses and other professions to provide the service,” the official said.
Johnson has already expressed his support for more visas for skilled Indians, stating that the UK is currently facing a shortage of experts in the information technology and programming sectors.
“The UK is a service-driven economy, and there is good interest in India’s services as well. Both the countries have already discussed … the recognition of nurses, sailors … in certificates of merit, so once the eligibility criteria align, they can temporarily go and work,” the official said.
Arpita Mukherjee, an economist at think tank ICRIER, said areas like non-farm market access, engineering products, alcoholic beverages under aerospace components, dairy, processed food, fisheries, meat, livestock genetics and animal feed and nutrition are likely to be discussed. Is. , Automobiles and Auto Parts are some of the areas of interest for UK.
“FTA should have provision for reduction in duty on bulk imports and intermediate goods to support Make in India and value addition in India. In services, the discussion should go beyond Mode 4 to address other barriers to trade, particularly those relating to Mode 1 and 2,” Mukherjee said. Mode 4 refers to the presence of a citizen of one country in the territory of another. Refers.
People familiar with the development said visas to the UK were a sensitive issue, as Brexit showed.
“Brexit was based on the immigration issue. They have had bad experiences. The UK developed a points-based visa system to attract talent. That aspect of visas is certainly open,” said another person aware of the development. said. Elaborating on the role of Brexit on the India-UK FTA, another official said that new opportunities have emerged after Brexit.
“There was a huge amount of complementarity in both the economies. But the UK was not an independent member, and so there was a lot of untapped potential for trade deals. For example, the UK is one of the largest investors in India. Many students choose UK for higher studies. A huge Indian diaspora is present,” the official said.
The India-UK FTA deal is set to give a boost to the domestic textile sectors. Exporters said the UK is one of the most important markets for them. India was in a disadvantageous position as it had lost duty-free access to several countries and was facing stiff competition from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
A sticky issue in the third round of talks is expected to be India’s demand for a 150 per cent tariff cut on Scotch whisky.
“The UK asks for three years of maturity for whiskey. We do not mature to that extent because of the hot climate. They should create a separate category called Indian whiskey, which is not ‘aged’ for technical reasons.”