India, UK conclude another round of talks on free trade agreement

livemint.com:

New Delhi: India and the UK concluded the eleventh round of talks for a proposed free trade agreement last week, and the next round of negotiations is due to take place in the coming month, the ministry of commerce & industry said on Monday. The negotiations for the agreement were launched on 13 January 2021.

“On 18 July 2023, India and the United Kingdom concluded the eleventh round of talks for the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA)," it said. As with previous rounds, this was conducted in a hybrid fashion - a number of Indian officials travelled to London for negotiations and others attended virtually.

During 10-11 July, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal visited the UK as part of the eleventh round of the UK-India FTA negotiations. He met with Kemi Badenoch MP, secretary of state for Business and Trade, and Nigel Huddleston MP, the minister of state for International Trade, where they discussed ways to make progress on the FTA negotiations and wider trade and investment opportunities for the UK and India.

Commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal also visited the UK during the round. He met with senior UK trade officials and took stock of the progress made in the eleventh round of negotiations.

Technical discussions were held across nine policy areas in over 42 separate sessions, according to the statement. The talks included detailed draft treaty text discussions in these policy areas, it said, adding, “The 12th round of negotiations is due to take place in the coming month."