Page 6 - Free Trade Agreement

No deal for access to Britain's labour market: UK on India FTA talks

Britain launched trade talks with India in January last year, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stressed that he won't sacrifice quality for speed in negotiations

India should consider free trade agreement with Egypt, say exporters

India should consider negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with Egypt as the Mediterranean nation holds huge potential for the domestic industry in various sectors like agri products, steel items and light vehicles, according to exporters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Cairo for a two-day state visit at the invitation of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai said that India and Egypt have historic trade relations, which are robust and fairly balanced. India's exports increased to USD 4.1 billion in 2022-23 from USD 3.74 billion in 2021-22. However, imports from that country declined to about USD 2 billion against USD 3.5 billion in 2021-22. Fertiliser, crude oil, chemicals, raw cotton, and raw hides are major import items from Egypt. The main export items include wheat, rice, cotton yarn, petroleum, meat, flat-rolled products, ferroalloys (related to iron) and light vehicles. "The prime minist

India, UK conclude another round of talks on free trade agreement: Official

Technical discussions were held across 10 policy areas in over 50 separate sessions, according to statement

India, UK seeking equal treatment for services sector cos under FTA

India and the UK are seeking equal treatment in each other's market for their respective companies engaged in the services sector under the proposed free trade agreement, which is under negotiations, a government official said. The two countries are looking at promoting trade in services through this agreement, negotiations for which was launched on January 13, 2021. As many as ten rounds of talks have been completed till June this year and both sides are aiming to conclude the negotiations at the earliest. In the services sector, the official said the UK is showing keen interest in areas such as financial sectors, while India is looking at areas such as education and movement of skilled professionals. Under the services chapter of the free trade agreement, there are no customs duty concessions given to each other. The two trading partners negotiate issues like giving national treatment to Indian and British companies in different sectors and ease norms to promote trade in service

India-UK FTA has to be win-win for both sides, says FICCI president

Free trade agreements (FTAs) need to ensure they provide a level playing field and the India-UK FTA, which recently completed its 10th round of negotiations, has to be a win-win scenario for both sides, the head of India's leading business chambers has said. Subhrakant Panda, President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), was in the UK this week for the FICCI Forum of Parliamentarians, a bipartisan initiative for political outreach. The delegation from India was briefed on areas of interest in the bilateral relationship over a series of discussions with businesses and parliamentarians. As far as Indian businesses are concerned, we are competitive, confident and looking to engage with the world, said Panda. I think what FTAs need to ensure is that they provide a level playing field and are rules-based. It's all about give and take. Clearly, both governments are engaged in intense discussions and 10 rounds have been completed, so I would look at it f

India is open to negotiate trade agreement with Africa: Piyush Goyal

India has expressed interest in negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with Africa with an aim to boost economic ties between the two regions. This was stated by commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal during his interaction with fifteen ambassadors from several countries of the Africa region here on Thursday. "India is open to FTA negotiations bilaterally or individually with African countries or Africa as a whole," he said. India would act as a trusted partner to expand trade, commerce, business, investment and opportunities with Africa, he said. In such agreements, two or more trading partners either significantly reduce or eliminate customs duties on maximum number of goods traded between them. Besides, they ease norms for promoting trade in services and attract investments. The 15 ambassadors are from countries, including Algeria, Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Republic of Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe. T

Modi, Sunak agree to work towards ambitious' FTA during talks in Japan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak on Sunday reviewed the progress of the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations and agreed for their trade teams to continue at pace towards an ambitious deal, Downing Street said. Modi and Sunak met on the sidelines of the summit of the G7 advanced economies here in Hiroshima. In their second in-person meeting since the G20 Summit in Indonesia last November, the two leaders are said to have discussed the deep ties shared between the nations. In relation to India's G20 presidency, Downing Street also indicated that the British Indian leader's first visit to India is expected to be for the G20 Summit in New Delhi later this year. The leaders reflected on the deep ties between the UK and India, rooted in our human connections, and the vital importance of democracy and fair and open trade, said a Downing Street spokesperson. "They discussed progress on a UK-India Free Trade Agreement. The leaders agreed that

Indo-Israel trade to touch $10 bn; FTA to strengthen cooperation: Officials

Indo-Israel trade will grow to USD 10 billion this year and a free trade agreement (FTA) is essential to strengthen the economic relations, visiting officials from the Jewish country said on Thursday. Direct flight connectivity will be established between more cities in India and Israel by the end of this year, they said. The country's Ambassador Naor Gilon said trade has grown by nearly 50 times since the establishment of full diplomatic ties between India and Israel in 1992. "We started at USD 200 million then and we are approaching USD 10 billion this year, Gilon said speaking at an India-Israel Business Summit here. The bilateral trade between the two countries grew to USD 8.09 billion, excluding defence procurements in the first nine months of FY23, up from USD 7.86 billion in FY22. Yael Ravia-Zadok, the head of the economic affairs division in Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that while the trade has grown and the scope of opportunities is endless, the FTA can hel

Israel keen to finalise FTA with India: Foreign Minister Eli Cohen

Israel is keen to finalise an FTA with India as there is a huge scope of trade between the two nations, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has said, and expressed hope that the agreement will further strengthen bilateral economic ties. From a humble beginning of USD 200 million in bilateral trade (primarily in diamonds) in 1992 when full diplomatic relations were established between the two countries, merchandise trade has diversified and reached USD 7.86 billion (excluding defence) during the period 2021-2022. In addition, bilateral trade in services in 2021 was USD 1.1 billion and in FY 2022-23, bilateral merchandise trade from April to December 2022 stood at USD 8.09 billion (excluding defence). "The scope for trade opportunities between our countries is huge and there is a strong desire to finalise an FTA that hopefully will further strengthen our economic ties...I believe the scope of the FTA is far larger than trade numbers. We should discuss it with the vision of bilateral relations

What critics of the govt miss: Not much is lost if the PLI scheme fails

Seeking a repeat of the East Asian model of merchandise export-led growth is a chimera. For India, services drive export growth, writes T N Ninan

UK's FTA negotiator Harjinder appointed new Trade Commissioner to India

Harjinder Kang, Britain's Chief Negotiator for the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) was on Wednesday named as the country's new Trade Commissioner to South Asia and Deputy High Commissioner for Western India. Kang, who will succeed Alan Gemmell as Deputy High Commissioner, will play a pivotal role in supporting the implementation of the FTA expected to bring huge opportunities for UK businesses, according to the British government. India and the UK have held nine rounds of discussions since the FTA talks began over a year ago in January 2022, with a goal towards a comprehensive pact that is expected to significantly enhance the bilateral trading relationship worth an estimated GBP 34 billion last year. I am delighted to welcome Harjinder to this role. He has been an integral part of our India trade deal negotiating team, and I'm confident he will use that experience to build on our outstanding track record on trade in South Asia, expanding opportunities for British businesses in

EFTA, India aim at building on existing work: Helene Budliger Artieda

EFTA received this proposal from India with an open and positive mind, says Swiss State Secretary for Economic Affairs Helene Budliger Artieda

India-UK to sign pact to cut red tape for greater science, tech tie-ups

Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh arrived here on Wednesday for a five-day trip to the UK to enhance the scale of bilateral collaboration in the field of scientific research and development and will kick-start the visit by signing a memorandum of understanding with his British counterpart. The programmes covered by the new MoU, to be agreed at a ministerial-level Science and Innovation Council meeting, will include the establishment of a new UK-India Net Zero Innovation Virtual Centre focusing on industrial decarbonisation and launching the first ever UK-India scientific deep sea voyage. "The visit seeks to enhance scale of bilateral collaboration in diverse fields ranging from scientific R&D, Startups, Industry and Academia," Dr Singh tweeted. Following his meeting with UK Science Minister George Freeman within the UK Parliament complex in London, he is scheduled to sign the joint MoU on research between the two countries which the UK government said .

India, Russia discussing free trade agreement, says Russia's deputy PM

Russia's Manturov was speaking at an event in New Delhi with India's foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, who said the South Asian country was in advance agreement for a bilateral trade treaty with Moscow

Next round of India-UK free trade agreement talks from April 24

Both sides now continue to thrash out the thorny issues pertaining to the trade pact

India, Italy for achieving balanced, fair Indo-EU free trade agreement

India and Italy have discussed progress of talks on the proposed free trade agreement between New Delhi and the European Union (EU) and hope for its early conclusion, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. In January last year, India and the EU resumed negotiations for a free trade agreement, investment protection and Geographical Indications (GI). Italy is a member of the EU. The issue came up for discussion in the meeting of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Foreign Office Antonio Tajani here on April 12. "The ministers underlined the importance of achieving a free, balanced and fair free trade agreement and hoped that it would be concluded soon," it said. They also agreed to the convening of the next session of the Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation (JCEC) in Rome in the last week of September. Tajani suggested the formation of a Joint Working Group in the strateg

FTA negotiations going on with United Kingdom, EU and Canada: Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while speaking at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) on Free Trade Agreements in Washington said that FTAs are being signed much faster

Cryptocurrency to FTA: Nirmala Sitharaman discusses range of issues in US

Sitharaman said that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) needs to be more progressive and must give space to countries that have something different to say

India remains a bright spot among global economies: Piyush Goyal

"We aim to use technology in every sphere to serve the people of India in a big way. Today, we are showcasing our developmental model to the rest of the world," Goyal said

TMS Ep384: Essar group, free trade agreement, metal stocks, generative AI

How can Essar regain its lost glory? Has India benefitted from its FTAs? Is it time to bet on metal stocks as China reopens? What is generative artificial intelligence? All answers here