What’s Rishi Sunak’s non-negotiable condition for trade deal with India?

British prime minister Rishi Sunak has ruled out a quick-fix trade deal with India. The move makes it difficult to reach an agreement in time for this week’s G20 summit in Delhi — or even by next year’s elections. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his ministers on Tuesday he would only reach a trade agreement with India when it benefited the whole of Britain, addressing his top team before travelling to the G20 summit in India later this week. “He said negotiations around a free trade deal were progressing and that he would only agree an approach which worked for the whole UK,” his spokesperson told reporters. The trade deal faces uncertainty Despite repeated claims from successive governments that a FreeTrade Agreement between the UK and India would be signed by October of last year, progress has been elusive. “There was talk last year of a deal by last Diwali, but that was only going to happen if it was a shallow deal based around a limited number of goods. Kemi Badenoch [the trade secretary] and Rishi Sunak have decided they don’t want to go down that route and so have taken a deadline off the table,” The Guardian reported citing a government source. “India wants to do an early agreement on goods, but the risk is that instead of being the start of a wider trade agreement, that becomes the end point and the UK doesn’t get any of the more fundamental things it wants,” said another top source in the UK government.

India sees a British trade deal as crucial as it aims to become a bigger exporter, while the UK, keen to expand trade opportunities after leaving the European Union, would get wider access for its whisky, premium cars and legal services. Still to be agreed are issues such as intellectual property rights, rules of origin and an investment treaty, and campaigners urged Britain not to demand any provisions that might undermine India’s generic drugs industry and make its products more expensive, reports Reuters. Sunak affirms strong UK-India ties in Cabinet meeting Ahead of his first visit to India as UK Prime Minister to attend the G20 World Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi later this week, Sunak updated his top team on the ongoing trade talks which have completed 12 rounds of negotiations. The British Indian leader described India as an “indispensable partner” of the UK across all spheres of bilateral cooperation, which he is keen to strengthen further. [caption id=“attachment_13084632” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Despite repeated claims from successive governments that an FTA between the UK and India would be signed by October of last year, progress has been elusive. Reuters[/caption] “He said negotiations around a free trade deal were progressing and that he would only agree an approach which worked for the whole of the UK,” notes a Downing Street readout of the Cabinet meeting, as reported by PTI. “The Prime Minister said India was an indispensable partner of the UK, both economically and in addressing the global challenges all democracies are facing. He said we must now strengthen the UK-India relationship.” UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who has returned from a visit to India after talks with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal last month, also updated the UK Cabinet on the FTA negotiations, saying that “India is already one of the UK’s largest trading partners, with a relationship worth GBP 36 billion (Rs 3.75 lakh crore) a year”. “The Prime Minister concluded Cabinet by setting out his desire to use our growing relationship in trade, defence, and technology to build a lasting and deep partnership with India which benefits the people of the UK for decades to come,” Downing Street said, reports PTI. Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India hopes to conclude talks over a free trade deal with Britain by the end of this year. “I won’t be wrong in saying a free trade agreement with the UK is very close,” she said. With inputs from agencies