Uncertainty over India-UK FTA after departure of Boris Johnson, New Delhi hopes momentum in talks will be maintained

The imminent end of Boris Johnson’s stint as the British Prime Minister has cast a shadow of uncertainty over negotiations for a trade deal between India and the United Kingdom.

New Delhi is however cautiously hoping that the two sides would be able to keep up the momentum in negotiations, notwithstanding the imminent change of guard at the 10 Downing Street in London.

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The two sides already had four rounds of negotiations, including the latest in London on June 24.

The fifth round was expected to be held in New Delhi later this month.

Johnson on Thursday announced his resignation as the leader of the Britain's Conservative Party setting the stage for his successor to take over as the new prime minister of the UK.

New Delhi refrained from commenting on the political upheaval in the UK. “These are internal developments, we are keeping a close watch,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi. “We have a multi-faceted partnership with the UK and we hope this will continue. We won't comment on leadership change.”

India and the UK had started negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement on January 13 this year. Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on April 22 last set the Diwali on October 24 this year as the deadline for concluding the negotiations for the proposed deal.

“There is some degree of optimism that it could be done soon. It would be nice if we could do that,” Bagchi told journalists in New Delhi. “Whether (or not) the change of the prime minister or the leadership in the UK will have (any) impact (on the negotiation for the trade deal) is in the speculation zone,” said the MEA spokesperson. “We hope that we can carry forward the good momentum that is underway in the talks.”

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India and the UK on January 13 launched negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with the target for clinching an interim or early-harvest deal first – covering at least 65 per cent of goods and 40 per cent services.

Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on April 22 last had a summit in New Delhi and set the Diwali on October 24 this year as the deadline for concluding the negotiations.

The final agreement is expected to cover 90 per cent of tariff lines for goods. The FTA is likely to double the bilateral trade in eight years, raising it from $ 16 billion in 2021 to $ 32 billion in 2030.

Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister, recently said that the negotiations between India and the UK were progressing well and the two sides might be able to conclude a final deal, not an interim one, by Diwali.

The fourth round of negotiations saw the detailed draft treaty text being advanced across the majority of chapters and the technical experts from both sides coming together for discussions in 71 separate sessions covering 20 policy areas.