New Delhi (India), 11th April 2023: The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated during a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) in Washington that the discussions for the India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are now underway and happening “as we speak”.
The clarification comes at a time when a report from a London-based daily had stated that there was recent vandalism by supporters of Khalistan outside the Indian High Commission in London, UK to failed to condemn the act, leading to the suspension of FTA negotiations between the two nations.
Refuting this she said that India has demonstrated its initiative, which is working out well in its pursuit of other nations and their acceptance of FTAs. With ASEAN, India has free trade agreements for both products and services. India also has accords with Korea and Japan.
She said, “Free Trade Agreements are being signed in a much faster way nowadays. We’ve just concluded one with Australia. Earlier we concluded with UAE, Mauritius and with ASEAN. We have extended quota-free and tariff-free regime to Least Developed Countries.”
Lastly she added, “So free trade agreements have bilaterally or with multilateral groups been the route which India has had till before 2014 and now between 2019 and today, we’ve had at least three major agreements signed. So, we shall proceed in that route, with the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada. All three are happening now as we speak, the negotiations are going on.”
