NEW DELHI: UK'S Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch will be in New Delhi from Monday for the 6th round of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between the United Kingdom and India.

For the first time, Badenoch will personally meet her counterpart, Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, with the goal of fostering closer ties and reviving negotiations on a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement.
Prior to the sixth round of formal negotiations, which will take place throughout the week, she will address both teams of senior negotiators.

The talks, which are the first official round since July, are aimed at reaching an agreement to reduce tariffs and open markets for UK services like financial and legal, making it simpler for British companies to sell to an economy that is predicted to become the third largest in the world by 2050 and have a middle class of 250 million people.

The Economic Secretary will meet with business executives during her tour to better understand their requirements for a contemporary trade relationship between the UK and India. A meeting with envoPAP, a UK business investing over £10 million in India to build a facility producing Fairtrade paper and packaging products, will be part of this.

"I'm here in New Delhi to launch round six of UK-India trade discussions and visit my counterpart Minister Goyal in person to drive progress on this accord," said Kemi Badenoch, secretary of state for international trade.

Both countries have gone to the negotiation table with the highest aspirations and a readiness to cooperate in search of a win-win agreement. The possibilities we can open up for British business thrill me.

"The world's fifth and sixth largest economies, respectively, are India and the UK. Our shared history puts us in a prime position to strike a deal that will boost our 29 billion pounds in annual trade, generate jobs, and promote growth." By the middle of the next decade, strong economic growth in India is predicted to increase UK exports to that country by over nine billion pounds, and UK companies are already using the prosperous trade relationship. 

Pret A Manger, a well-known brand in the UK, and fintech pioneers Tide and Revolut are a few companies developing in India. Following a franchise agreement with Reliance Brands, the British coffee and sandwich store Pret will launch its first location in India in the first quarter of 2023. The chain will establish its first location in Mumbai as part of a strategy to open 100 locations nationwide.

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