The United Kingdom has been trying to negotiate with India in terms of a free trade agreement between both the counties. The UK has launched a 14-week consultation process in order to seek the opinions from the public as well as businesses before negotiating on the agreement. Let’s look at what exactly is the free trade agreement and how it would benefit the countries.
Free Trade Agreement – Latest News
What is Free Trade Agreement?
How India-UK agreement will double the trade between UK and India?
What are the 5 Cs in India-UK Free Trade Agreement?
Other Advantages of India-UK agreement
FAQ
Free Trade Agreement – Latest News
The trade secretary of the UK, Liz Truss had begun the preparations for the trade deal between India and the UK. The country wants to remove the trade barriers in order to conduct the business and trade with India which includes removing a tariff of 150% on whisky and 125% on British-made cars.
The UK government is looking forward to seeking opinions from consumers and businesses from different sectors in order to help in crafting a deal that would help in increasing cooperation in the future. The industries which will be concentrated include science, technology and services which are expected to create high value jobs in the UK.
What is Free Trade Agreement?
A Free trade agreement is a situation or an pact between two or more nations in regards to imports and exports in between the countries. It can be understood as a removal of the barriers involved in imports and exports.
Under a free trade agreement good and services can be purchased or sold across international borders with very little or zero government intervention such as charging of tariffs, quotas, prohibitions or subsidiaries.
Baishali Das Adhikari
How India-UK agreement will double the trade between UK and India?
Both the countries already have a trade agreement and according to 2019, the trade between India and UK was worth 23 billion Euros and both the countries want to double the figures by the end of 2030. The recent free trade agreement is focused on concentrating much more than the movement of goods.
The free trade agreement concentrates on covering services, digital business and SMEs. So, it is expected to have a huge amount of content in a free trade agreement.
What are the 5 Cs in India-UK Free Trade Agreement?
While both the governments are moving forward with the free trade agreement, it is expected to be characterized based on the 5 Cs.
1C
Where the 1st C would be Covid which both the countries have and are still suffering from. In India, the second wave has seen a drastic rise in the number of cases. The United Kingdom has been sending a lot of medical supplies and even both the countries are working together in rolling out the vaccines. Around a billion doses of Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccines are being produced by the Serum Institute of India.
2C
The 2nd C would be commerce and the main focus of the Free trade agreement as seen both the countries are trying to double the trade by the year 2030. It is also seen that around half a million of jobs in each other’s economy are supported through the trade. India is also keen on UK’s expertise in Life sciences, Med Tech and diagnostics.
3C
The 3rd C refers to the community. It refers to the British Indian community which is expected to be around 1.5 million providing an advantage to the relationship. It is considered that the Anglo-Indian community is an entrepreneurial one and research has shown that around 174,000 people are employed under the companies owned by Anglo-Indians and all the companies have a combined revenue of over 35 billion Euros.
4C
4th C refers to the commonwealth which is considered to be the important glue of the relationship. The UK is the chair in the office with India in the commonwealth and India is a founding member of the Commonwealth summit. Both the countries are working together to increase the effectiveness.
5C
The 5th C which is the final one refers to the climatic changes. In the month of November, the UK will host COP-26 which is a climate change talks and India being the key country that is expected to be most affected by global warming will have a scope to working together in finding shared solutions. They have already started by scaling up the electric mobility market in the country.
Krishna kumar
Other Advantages of India-UK Agreement
It is expected that the UK will open up its fisheries sector to more Indian players, providing more opportunities for nurses and in return, India lifts the restrictions to import British fruits to the country and improved access to medical services. These actions are expected to create around 25,000 direct and indirect jobs in India.
Ranil Jayawardena who is the international trade minister of the UK has conveyed that the trade deal with India will break down certain barriers and will make it easier for British Businesses to sell goods in India. It will also help in gaining more investments, increasing wages and lowering prices in Britain.
FAQ
Is there a free trade agreement between UK and India?
Yes, UK and India has signed a free trade agreement which is concentrated on science, technology and services.
Which country has the most free trade agreements?
UK has the most free trade agreements with 37 FTA agreements with different countries.
Is FTA beneficial for India?
Yes, FTA is beneficial for India as it will ease export in the country and will create more jobs for the people of India.
Conclusion
Over the last 10-15 years the European Union had tried to sign a free trade agreement with India and failed. But since now the UK is an independent nation it is considered that the chances of getting into an agreement with India are higher than it was ever been.
Author: Alan Joseph
Source : https://startuptalky.com/india-uk-free-trade-agreement/
Date : 2021-05-29T09:36:49.000Z