According to Sunil Barthwal, the commerce secretary, the parties negotiating the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) are nearing agreement on five additional policy issues and have narrowed their differences on the hot-button issues of intellectual property rights and rules of origin.

“We were able to finish 14 chapters” (policy areas). Our negotiation teams predict that we will be able to close five chapters. He stated at a briefing that those deal with significant difficult issues like labour, the environment, and digital trade.

India and the UK are discussing a separate investment pact that will be signed concurrently with the trade agreement. The FTA discussions encompass 26 policy areas.
He claimed that various elements are coming together to resolve disagreements on the remaining five chapters, which include topics including the environment, labour, and digital trade.

With regard to IPR and norms of origin, there are some variances. A few issues are also missing from the services sector. We are addressing those problems. We will hopefully be able to resolve the problems and forward the FTA, Barthwal stated.

Rules of Origin outline what must be the local content in an export product to be eligible for reduced import charges. They are a requirement of all FTAs in order to stop third countries from sending their goods through parties to the agreement.
According to Barthwal, the free trade agreement we will negotiate with the UK is the most complicated one. The UK will be the first nation with which we have a very thorough free trade agreement. which, as such, we have not signed with any industrialized nation.

The FTA has undergone ten rounds of discussions, with the eleventh round currently taking place in the UK.

The recent statement by the commerce ministry that the India-UK free trade deal negotiations have reached a “critical stage” is accurate.

Piyush Goyal, the minister of commerce and industry, was in London from July 10 to 12 to advance the FTA negotiations.

Last year, the two nations missed the deadline to wrap up the negotiations because of the political situation in the UK.
The Indian business wants the three-year minimum maturation requirement removed in order to allow for more access for its skilled workers to the UK market and the introduction of Indian whisky.

Additionally, the UK wants to see the import taxes on Scotch whisky significantly reduced. Additionally, Britain seeks out possibilities for its services to expand into Indian markets. Tariffs on automobiles will be another divisive topic during negotiations.

In 2022–2023, India’s merchandise exports to the UK jumped 9.03% year over year to $11.4 billion, while $8.9 billion in imports were up 27%. FDI from the UK increased to $1.7 billion in FY23 from $1.6 billion in FY22. Ready-made clothing and textiles, diamonds, jewellery, engineering products, petroleum and petrochemical products, transport equipment, spices, machinery and instruments, medicines, and marine products are among India’s top exports to the UK.

Precious and semi-precious stones, ores, scrap metal, engineering products, non-electronic professional equipment, chemicals, and machinery are the principal imports from the UK.