London: A free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK is due to be signed this year, but it will not facilitate the provision of free movement visas to Indians, the UK trade minister in charge of negotiations said.
Kemi Badenok traveled to New Delhi last month to kick off the sixth round of FTA negotiations with Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal. We have also excluded key similarities between the FTA we signed (one of the first post-Brexit trade deals) and India.
“We left the EU[European Union]because we didn’t believe in free movement. It’s not a deal we’re negotiating,” Badenoch told the newspaper. Reference to more visa offers. The minister has indicated he is willing to make concessions on issues such as business mobility, but has ruled out the possibility of Indians entering into the same kind of deal with Australia, where anyone under the age of 35 can stay in the UK for three years. You can live and work.
The mutual UK-India Young Professionals Scheme, officially launched earlier this month, will provide 3,000 graduates between the ages of 18 and 30 with visas each year to live and work in either country for up to two years. It is seen that this hurdle has been overcome. “We have to make sure that each trade agreement we sign is tailored to a specific country. It won’t provide the same kind of mobility that it can, India has many times the population,” Badenok said.
“And what people in the UK want to do when they travel to Australia will probably be slightly different than when they travel to India,” she told The Times. Reiterated Rishi Sunak’s approach to FTA negotiations with deadlines as “useless” and leading the government’s more flexible approach going forward.
“The mantra ‘Trade on Diwali’ is one of the things I’ve changed since becoming Secretary of Commerce. I tell people it’s about trading, not the day. Everything needs to be done. Having a fixed date allows the negotiations to take less time for the other party,” she said.
