India-UK trade talks set to end with key issues unresolved
UK and India appears set to end without a breakthrough on major outstanding issues, according to people familiar with the negotiations, meaning agreement is unlikely to be reached before India holds a general election.
UK officials flew back from New Delhi on Thursday night and Friday, with people close to both negotiating teams saying there were still hurdles to be overcome in goods, services and investment areas.
Indian negotiators don’t have sufficient time to engage on the pending issues ahead of elections likely in April, two people familiar with the development said, refusing to be identified as the discussions are private. That means the 14th round of talks is likely to close without further discussions.
The two sides hope to regroup after the election, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party seems poised to win for the third term.
In the UK, the task of clinching a deal may not fall to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative Party is more than 20 percentage points behind Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in opinion polls. A British general election is expected to be held in the second half of the year.
A free-trade agreement with India, the most populous nation on the planet and fastest-growing major economy, is being touted by Sunak’s government as a key prize of Brexit. However, negotiations that were meant to be concluded by the Hindu festival of Diwali in October 2022 have been plagued by disputes over everything from visas for Indian workers and students to market access for UK
