After three years of negotiations in terms of plan, the United Kingdom and India have concluded a trade agreement that will facilitate British companies to export whiskey, cars and other products to India, and will reduce taxes of India clothes and shoes.
The agreement does not include any change in the immigration policy, including the Indian students studying in the United Kingdom, said the British government.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the British businesses and consumers were “massive”.
Last year, trade between the United Kingdom and India totaled 41 billion pounds sterling and was already to grow, but the government said that the agreement would increase this trade by 25.5 billion pounds additional sterling per year by 2040.
Mr. Reynolds met his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal in London last week to put the final touch to the agreement.
Once it has entered into force, which could take up to a year, British consumers are likely to benefit from the reduction of tariffs on goods from India from India, the Ministry of Affairs said.
In addition to clothes, this will include certain Indian foods, such as frozen shrimp.
The government has also highlighted the advantages of economic growth and the creation of jobs for British companies expanding exports to India.
Gin and whiskey prices will be divided by two to 75%, with new reductions taking effect in recent years.
Samples from cars, aerospace, electricity and certain British food products will also fall.
The British government said that the Agreement was the largest and most economical “bilateral trade agreement that has been signed by the United Kingdom since the European Union in 2020.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described it as a “historic agreement” that would stimulate growth and “deliver for the British and business”.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the agreement as a historic stage which was “ambitious and mutually beneficial”.
India is expected to become the third world economy in a few years.
US President Donald Trump’s pricing campaign has concentrated in other countries on how to react and increased the momentum to conclude trade agreements.
The United Kingdom is also a high priority trading partner for the government of Prime Minister Modi, which has an ambitious target to increase exports by 1 Billion by 2030.
Allline Renison, a former government’s commercial adviser, said: “It is undoubtedly the most economically transformative free trade agreement in the post-Brexit landscape of the United Kingdom aligned, in particular because of the size of India, the growth rate and obstacles relatively high to access to its market.
“While negotiations have been rumbling for several years with a number of stumbling blocks, it seems that this government is eager to resolve them to obtain the line agreement,” she said.
