India, UK Plan To Launch Negotiations On Free Trade Agreement From November; Aim For Interim Trade Pact By March

India and the United Kingdom (UK) are set to launch the parleys for a free trade agreement (FTA) in coming November with an aim to finalise an interim early harvest trade agreement by March next year, reports Economic Times.

The interim trade agreement would involve early tariff or market access concessions on certain key ‘high priority products and services’ and it would be followed by a comprehensive FTA.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his British counterpart Elizabeth Truss discussed the FTA issue and other trade-related matters on 13 September.

In an official statement over the meeting, the UK government said that the two ministers agreed to launch a series of trade working groups from September itself to help both the sides to better understand each other’s position on potential chapter areas for the trade deal.

These chapter areas would include subjects like tariffs, standards, intellectual property and also data regulation.

It should also be noted that both the nations will begin their Joint Scoping discussions beginning 1 October onwards to finalise the terms of reference for the negotiations in November.