India's commerce minister heads to UK to fast-track free trade deal

New Delhi
India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has embarked on a two-day visit to the UK to accelerate talks on a long-pending bilateral free trade agreement, his office said on Wednesday.
Launched in January 2022, the FTA negotiations between India and the UK were set to conclude the same year, but despite more than a dozen formal rounds, talks have stalled over issues like tariffs, rules of origin and mobility for services professionals.
A deal-in-principle was announced in May by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Keir Starmer.
Goyal's UK visit comes in the 'backdrop of the announcement' and 'aims to accelerate bilateral engagements and harness emerging opportunities,' the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.
The minister is scheduled to meet UK Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds to 'review the progress made in the ongoing FTA negotiations and chart out a clear, time-bound road map for its finalization and implementation.'
If Goyal's visit succeeds in producing an implementation road map with timelines, he would be able to start negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty with the UK, Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore, told Arab News.
'A working FTA for India is extremely important, especially in a scenario where global trade uncertainty is at an all-time high due to the trade war and tariffs imposed by President Trump,' Manur said.
'In this scenario, an FTA with the UK delivers greater certainty to India, provides market access to an important large economy, and will also act as a leverage point for trade negotiations with the US.'
India has so far signed 14 free trade agreements with 25 countries, along with several regional and preferential trade pacts covering additional nations. These include agreements with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the UAE.
Talks are also ongoing with the Gulf Cooperation Council and the EU — with commitments to conclude talks in 2025.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Saudi Gazette

an hour ago

• Saudi Gazette

Pro-Palestinian activists break into RAF airbase

LONDON — Pro-Palestinian activists in the UK have broken into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed two military planes with red paint in a major security breach. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has condemned the action as "disgraceful", saying that it was an "act of vandalism". Footage posted online by Palestine Action on Friday showed two people inside the Oxfordshire airbase in darkness, with one riding on a scooter up to an Airbus Voyager and spraying paint into its jet engine. The Ministry of Defense, which has also condemned the move, is now expected to conduct a review of security at UK military bases. It is working with Thames Valley Police, which is leading the investigation. Palestine Action said the activists evaded security and claimed they had put the air-to-air refuelling tankers "out of service". However, RAF engineers are assessing the damage and a defence source told the BBC they did not expect the incident to affect operations. In a statement, a Palestine Action spokesperson said: "Despite publicly condemning the Israeli government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US and Israeli fighter jets." RAF Brize Norton serves as the hub for UK strategic air transport and refuelling, including flights to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The air force has conducted reconnaissance flights over Gaza out of the Cyprus base. The base is encircled by a large perimeter fence, with security camera and sensors in the area in addition to manned security checkpoints. Patrols around the base are also carried out from time to time. But a defense source said these measures would not have been able to provide complete cover around the large airbase. Palestine Action has engaged in similar activity since the start of the current war in Gaza, predominantly targeting arms companies. In May, it claimed responsibility for the daubing of a US military plane in Ireland. The group said the activists who entered RAF Brize Norton used repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into the planes' engines. It also said they caused "further damage" using crowbars — though this is not visible in the bodycam footage it provided. Video shows the activists then roaming around the airbase. The protesters did not spray paint on the Vespina aircraft - used by the prime minister for international travel - which was also on the base. An MoD spokeswoman said: "Our armed forces represent the very best of Britain. They put their lives on the line for us, and their display of duty, dedication and selfless personal sacrifice are an inspiration to us all. "It is our responsibility to support those who defend us." Thames Valley Police confirmed it had received a report about people gaining access to the base and causing criminal damage. "Inquiries are ongoing to locate and arrest those responsible," the force said. Lord West, Labour minister for UK security and former head of the Royal Navy, said earlier that while he was not aware of the full details, the break-in was "extremely worrying". "We can't allow thing like this to happen at all," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding that breaches like it were "really a problem" for national security. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the security breach was "deeply concerning". "This is not lawful protest, it is politically motivated criminality," she said in a statement. "We must stop tolerating terrorist or extremist groups that seek to undermine our society." Shadow armed forces minister Mark Francois told the BBC any attempt to interfere with the engines of large aircraft was "totally reprehensible". He added there were "serious questions for the MoD to answer" about how protesters were able to "gain access to what is supposed to be a secure RAF airbase". — BBC

Arab News

3 hours ago

• Arab News

BBC threatens legal action against AI startup Perplexity over content scraping

LONDON: The BBC has threatened legal action against Perplexity, accusing the AI startup of training its 'default AI model' using BBC content, the Financial Times reported on Friday, making the British broadcaster the latest news organisation to accuse the AI firm of content scraping. The BBC may seek an injunction unless Perplexity stops scraping its content, deletes existing copies used to train its AI systems, and submits 'a proposal for financial compensation' for the alleged misuse of its intellectual property, FT said, citing a letter sent to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. The broadcaster confirmed the FT report on Friday. Perplexity has faced accusations from media organizations, including Forbes and Wired, for plagiarizing their content but has since launched a revenue-sharing program to address publisher concerns. Last October, the New York Times sent it a 'cease and desist' notice, demanding the firm stop using the newspaper's content for generative AI purposes. Since the introduction of ChatGPT, publishers have raised alarms about chatbots that comb the internet to find information and create paragraph summaries for users. The BBC said that parts of its content had been reproduced verbatim by Perplexity and that links to the BBC website have appeared in search results, according to the FT report. Perplexity called the BBC's claims 'manipulative and opportunistic' in a statement to Reuters, adding that the broadcaster had 'a fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet and intellectual property law.' Perplexity provides information by searching the internet, similar to ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, and is backed by (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos, AI giant Nvidia (NVDA.O), and Japan's SoftBank Group (9984.T). The startup is in advanced talks to raise $500 million in a funding round that would value it at $14 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

Al Arabiya

4 hours ago

• Al Arabiya

Britain signs $2.7 bln investment partnership deal with Bahrain

Britain said on Friday that it signed a new partnership with Bahrain that will see 2 billion pounds ($2.69 billion) of investment into financial services, clean energy, manufacturing and technology. 'This 2 billion pounds commitment is yet another major vote of confidence in the UK economy, backing the key growth sectors we've identified in our upcoming modern Industrial Strategy,' business minister Jonathan Reynolds said in a statement. ($1 = 0.7424 pounds)