India, U.K. Trade Pact Talks At Advance Stage; We Want A Fair Deal: Commerce Secretary

The negotiations for the proposed India-U.K. free trade agreement are at an advanced stage, and both sides are working to iron out differences on the remaining issues, a top government official said on Thursday.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said the negotiations are taking time because 'we want' to safeguard India's interest.

"India should commercially gain out of it and we should also be able to safeguard the interest of our farmers, PLI (production linked incentive) scheme goods. So, we are there to see that the deal is a fair deal," he told reporters here.

Additional Secretary in the Commerce Ministry L Satya Srinivas said the talks are at an advanced stage and going on at a 'very' high level to iron out differences.

The 14th round of talks started on January 10.

The investment treaty is being negotiated as a separate agreement between India and the U.K.

The bilateral trade between India and the U.K. increased to $20.36 billion in 2022-23 from $17.5 billion in 2021-22.

On the India-European Union free trade agreement, the ministry informed that the seventh round of talks is scheduled from Feb. 19-23 here.

In June 2022, India and the EU restarted the negotiations for the long-pending trade and investment agreement on Friday after a gap of over eight years.

On the India-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, Additional Secretary in the ministry Rajesh Agrawal said that legal scrubbing of text on clean and fair economy agreements is underway.

He said the supply chain resilience pact will come into force from Feb. 24 this year.

To implement this, he said, action plans are being developed to optimise participation in institutional structures under the supply chain pact.