INDIA PUSHES THE PEDAL ON TRADE

With a tariff war initiated by the US, India has stepped up efforts to conclude long pending trade pacts with the UK and the EU. Will 2025 be the year that they materialise?

- BY SURABHI

With the threat of a global tariff war now fast becoming a full-fledged reality, India's long pending free trade agreement (FTA) talks seem to have been put on the fast track. What's significant is that the partner countries seem equally keen on clinching a deal.

This sense of urgency was reflected in the talks that India held in the end of February with both the UK and the EU (negotiations have been on since 2007 with the EU). India and New Zealand have also decided to restart FTA talks after a pause of 10 years.

India and the UK announced the resumption of FTA negotiations After a gap of eight months for “a balanced, mutually beneficial and forward-looking deal”. The talks were in a limbo owing to general elections in both the countries. However, there is no definite timeline for its conclusion with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal underlining that there will be speed, but not haste after his meeting with UK Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds in New Delhi.

Talks between India and the 27-nation EU bloc seemed to be even more focussed—there is an agreement for concluding the FTA by 2025-end. This was one of the key outcomes of the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU, who visited India in late February along with the EU College of Commissioners.