UK and India agree ‘landmark’ trade deal
After three years of on-off negotiations, the UK and India have agreed a trade deal that will make it easier for UK firms to export whisky, cars and other products to India, and cut taxes on India’s clothing and footwear exports.
The deal does not include any change in immigration policy, including towards Indian students studying in the UK, the British government said.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the benefits for UK businesses and consumers were “massive”.
Last year trade between the UK and India totalled £41bn and was already forecast to grow, but the government said the deal would boost that trade by an additional £25.5bn a year by 2040.
Mr Reynolds met his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal in London last week to put the final touches on the deal.
Once it comes into force, which could take up to a year, UK consumers are likely to benefit from the reduction in tariffs on goods coming into the country from India, the Department for Business said.
As well as clothing, that will include some Indian foodstuffs, such as frozen prawns.
The government also emphasised the benefit to economic growth and job creation from UK firms expanding exports to India.
Gin and whisky tariffs will be halved to 75%, with further reductions taking effect in later years.
Levies on cars, aerospace, electricals and some UK food products will also fall.
The British government said the deal was the “biggest and most economically significant” bilateral trade agreement the UK had signed since leaving the European Union in 2020.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described it as a “landmark deal” which would boost growth and “deliver for British people and business”.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, described the deal as an historic milestone that was “ambitious and mutually beneficial”.
India is forecast to become the world’s third-largest economy in a few years.
US President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign has focused minds in other countries on how to respond, and increased the impetus to strike trade deals.
The UK is also a high priority trading partner for Prime Minister Modi’s government, which has an ambitious target to grow exports by $1 trillion by 2030.
Allie Renison, a former government trade adviser said: “This is arguably the most economically transformational free-trade deal in the UK’s post-Brexit landscape of agreements lined up, particularly because of India’s size, growth rate and relatively high barriers to accessing its market.
“While negotiations have been rumbling on for several years with a number of stumbling blocks, it seems this government was keen to resolve them to get the deal over the line,” she said.
