The free trade agreement FTA with India won't be a free for all deal, but it will be good for both countries and not a particular sector, the UK government cautioned on Tuesday as a prime ministerial level will be set for the pact approaches.
The UK Secretary of State for International Trade Kemi Badenoch, who is in charge of the FTA negotiations under Prime Liz Truss, spoke about access to the country's services sector into the Indian market at the Conservative Party annual conference in Birmingham.
The senior cabinet minister also indicated that the Diwali timeline set by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not arbitrary and could be met with further aspects covered beyond that deadline.
Badenoch said that we want something comprehensive but it has to be right for both countries.
The Prime Minister has a deadline that was not met by the previous Prime Minister. That was a long deadline, so it wasn't set last week. It's not easy to do a trade deal. We want to do something that lifts both countries. She said that it may not be everything the services sector wants, but we may not get everything, and we are not doing a unilateral, free-for-all deal.
She added that just because we have a free trade agreement, doesn't mean we can't do anything later. Diwali falls on October 24th this year.
The minister, who is leading the final round of India - UK FTA negotiations on the British side, pointed out that the intention is to reduce barriers to trade bilaterally and balancing each side's different requirements on product and market access.
We should not pretend that we are doing a complete liberalisation of every single thing that can be done with India and create a single market and freedom of movement. She said that is not what we are doing with every trade deal, there is give and take.
We talk about free trade but they are not universal, unilateral free trade. I think freer trade is a more accurate way of describing what we are doing on all these bilateral deals. She noted that there are lots of political things that need to be looked at in the round.
Badenoch, who was involved in a panel discussion organized by the Policy Exchange think tank called Trade and the Indo-Pacific, has been in charge of the Department of International Trade DIT since early last month, and says she wants to shift the discussion beyond trade deals to wider cooperation.
I am not in a rush to sign trade deals. I want good deals with these countries. She said that we need to make sure every deal is great for the UK.
The Minister said that the UK needs to be aware that India has different needs from other countries because of the patent protection.
Aileen Keyes, head of International Public Policy for Diageo, said lowering India's 150 per cent tariffs on Scotch whisky was one of the priority areas that would be a win-win for both sides.
Badenoch agreed that it is something we will get from having a great deal with India.
She agreed with Indian-origin entrepreneur Lord Karan Bilimoria that a comprehensive deal with India should cover security cooperation.
Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said last month that negotiations between India and the UK are progressing at a faster pace. The agreement is intended to boost trade and investments between the two countries.
India and the UK trade mostly in services, which accounts for about 70 per cent of the total trade. Both countries want to increase their bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by the end of the decade.