Free Trade Agreement possible before India polls, says Britain’s trade minister

PTI

London, March 8

A trade deal being negotiated with India is “possible” to be concluded before general election in the country but Britain does not want to use that as a deadline, UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch has said. The minister in charge of signing off on the free trade agreement (FTA), now in its 14th round of negotiations, pointed to India's "protectionist economy" in comparison with the Britain’s liberalised regime as one of the factors behind the long-drawn discussions.

UK liberalised

India is still very protectionist where we are very, very liberalised. Kemi Badenoch, Secy of State for Business & Trade

Badenoch, who was speaking during a Global Trade conference at the think tank Chatham House on Thursday, stressed that she wanted to ensure a “commercially meaningful” pact as opposed to just a pre-election picture opportunity. “India is still very protectionist where we are very, very liberalised,” claimed Badenoch. “I am not interested in just taking a picture and moving on. It has to be something that is commercially meaningful. People need to be able to say ‘ah now I can do this', like we had with our Australia agreement or with Japan for example,” she said, referring to FTAs with the two major economies.

On the timeline for getting to the finishing line with the talks with India, she added: “We can actually sign an agreement before the Indian election. I suspect that that is not necessarily going to be the case because I don't want to use any election as a deadline.”

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