No breakthrough yet on India-UK trade pact

THE INDIA-UK FREE trade agreement (FTA) may take some more time to wrap up as some differences still remain.

- FE BUREAU

A second visit to commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal within a week had raised hopes of a breakthrough, but no formal announcement came.

After wrapping up his visit to Brussels, the minister was back again in London on Friday and met secretary of state for trade and business Jonathan Reynolds. This was their second meeting within a week.

As officials from both sides worked to resolve the final roadblocks, Goyal spent his Saturday meeting representatives of various Indian organisations and visited the International Centre for Sustainability in London. The minister has since returned to New Delhi. According to the officials, the differences still remain over the wording of some of the provisions of the trade and investment agreements.

The officials who are part of the negotiations on FTA, bilateral investment treaty (BIT), and social security pact double contribution convention agreement (DCCA) are having a relook at the technical issues that have cropped up, officials had said earlier.