Trade

1 Free Trade Agreement – Confirm our intent to finalise the pre-negotiation scoping phase for a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement by the end of 2021. This will resolve market access issues, boost exports and strengthen our trade partnership across a comprehensive range of areas. Both sides will undertake respective scoping, consultations and domestic processes, with consideration of the opportunity arising from an Interim Agreement, to achieve the early gains of the ETP.

2 Remove barriers to trade through a balanced and beneficial market access package under the ETP including on agriculture, healthcare, education, legal services, seafarers, marine, healthcare and social security.

3 Continue cooperation under the Joint Working Group on Trade towards reducing/removing market access barriers faced by Indian businesses in the UK and UK businesses in India.

4 Continue to share experience on regulatory reform, tax administration, and trade facilitation and standards through the early conclusion of a new and refreshed UK-India Ease of Doing Business MoU. Encourage and institutionalize cooperation between relevant regulators, such as FSSAI and the UK regulator to facilitate exports and avoid trade disruptions due to non-compliance with standards by producers and exporters.

5 Increase exchanges and cooperation in the services sector such as IT and digital tech, healthcare and life sciences, financial and professional services, transport & logistics, Business Services, Tourism and Hospitality, Audio-Visual Services and other services. Step up bilateral Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) trade and collaborations, particularly technology sharing and financing of businesses.

6 Deepen cooperation on G2G across a broad range of sectors, with a particular focus on infrastructure including airports and multi-modal transport hubs, through the establishment of a G2G bilateral framework through which projects can be facilitated between government and industry.

7 Continue to explore specific opportunities to collaborate on the Indian Rail and Land Development Authority’s station redevelopment programme. This collaboration, to be formalised through the signing of an MoU, will capitalise on the UK’s heritage conservation and station renewal expertise and redevelopment experience to support India’s extensive programme to regenerate railway links and community hubs across the country.

8 Identify infrastructure projects in India, particularly green transition projects, that utilise UK Export Finance support in the form of long term competitive financing of up to £4bn, including in Indian Rupees.

9 Explore longer term options for a UK concessional finance offer to mobilise UK expertise into clean, green and sustainable infrastructure projects in India.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *