India, UK may ink FTA by the end of this month
India and the UK are likely to sign a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) in the last week of this month. It will be New Delhi's first such comprehensive deal with an industrialised nation, seeking to spur bilateral annual business beyond the current $20 billion.
India has extended an invitation to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to visit India on October 28 and ink the ambitious pact, people aware of details told ET.
Senior commerce and industry ministry officials on Monday made a presentation to the Prime Minister's Office on the agreement, the people cited said.
UK sees Customs as bureaucratic
Trade negotiators met in the UK last week to finalise the contours of the pact, they said. The two contentious issues of rules of origin and intellectual property rights are still being discussed.
«India has invited the UK Prime Minister to sign the pact on October 28.
Both sides are keen to ink it,» said one of the persons cited above.
The UK will be the first developed country with which India is seeking to sign a comprehensive FTA.
The pact will have 26 chapters. Product-specific rules, value addition, change in the chapter heading, and certification are being discussed in the rules of origin chapter, where an in-principle agreement has been reached.
