The Union commerce ministry said the UK delegation will be in India for FTA negotiations, and high-level engagements at various levels are ongoing to iron out differences.
“The majority of the chapters are either closed or are at an advanced stage of negotiations. 134 rounds of negotiations have been continuing since 18th September. Negotiations cover 26 policy areas/chapters,” the ministry said on Friday.
According to reports, the bilateral pact, which missed an earlier deadline of Diwali 2022, is likely to be signed when the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, visits New Delhi, possibly in the last week of October.
The matter of mobility of Indian professionals to the UK is currently being negotiated.
Some media reports also say India has been pushing for short-term visas for skilled professionals who go to the UK for a limited duration to work on specific projections.
At the FTA talks, areas of contention for the Indian side have been the rules of origin for goods, intellectual property rights, and facilitation of professional mobility.
As per the “rules of origin” provision, minimal processing should happen in the FTA country so that the final manufactured product may be referred to as goods originating in that country.
The rules say that a country which has inked an FTA with India cannot dump goods from some third country in the Indian market by just putting a label on it. It must undertake a prescribed value addition in that product to export to India.
In 2022-23, the bilateral trade between India and the UK increased to $20.36 billion (₹1,695.82 billion or £16.72 billion) from $17.5 billion (₹1,457.61 billion or £14.38 billion) in 2021-22.
According to official UK business and trade department figures, the UK-India bilateral trade was worth an estimated £36 billion (₹3,650.60 billion or $43.83 billion) in 2022.