Landmark Deal: Industry leaders applaud India-UK Free Trade Agreement

The India-UK Free Trade Agreement has provided wider access to goods and services of both countries with industry leaders viewing the "historic" deals as opening up opportunities to push more trade in the United Kingdom.

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Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies Director General Anant S Iyer said the FTA will strengthen the economic ties between the two countries across a lot of sectors. "We believe that this FTA is pretty historic between India and the UK, because it will strengthen our economic ties between the two countries across a lot of sectors," Iyer told.

India is set to benefit from the elimination or reduction of tariffs on about 99 per cent of its exports to the UK post the FTA. "About 99 lines of business would benefit, especially very high labour intensive ones," he said.

He has also requested the government to have a minimum import price on alcoholic beverages, or have some mechanism whereby there is anti-dumping clauses to curb the entry of low-priced items into India.

"The second thing we are saying is to look at the country of origin. So be very clear that the rules of origin are followed so that you cannot get scotch diverted from some other country or wines coming from using loopholes," Iyer said.

British whisky producers will benefit from tariffs slashed in half, reduced immediately from 150 per cent to 75 per cent and then dropped even further to 40 per cent over the next ten years - giving the UK an advantage over international competitors in reaching the Indian market, an UK statement noted yesterday.