The U.K. and India are also negotiating a bilateral investment treaty. File.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The U.K.’s new Labour government announced that it would begin trade talks with India and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Israel, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.

The U.K. and India have had 14 rounds of negotiations since the Boris Johnson-led Conservative government launched trade talks with New Delhi in 2022. The total value of trade in goods and services was £39 billion ($50 billion) in the four quarters ending Q4 2023 as per U.K. government data.

“Our teams will be entering negotiating rooms as soon as possible, laser-focused on creating new opportunities for UK firms so they can support jobs across the country and deliver the growth we desperately need,” Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Monday.

A trade agreement with India would give the U.K. access to the Indian middle class, projected to grow to over a quarter of a billion consumers by 2050, a U.K. government statement said.

“I am delighted that the new government has moved so quickly to restart trade negotiations with India,” Chairman of Tata Sons N. Chandrasekaran said, according to a statement released by the U.K. Department for Business and Trade.

“As one of the largest international investors in the U.K., the Tata Group supports any action that strengthens the British economy,” he added. In July 2023, Tata Sons had announced that it would invest some £4 billion in an electric vehicle battery factory in the UK.

The U.K. and India are also negotiating a bilateral investment treaty. The U.K. wants greater access to Indian markets as far as financial, legal and other services are concerned. India wants greater ease of movement for skilled professionals to deliver services in the U.K. (under Mode 4 General Agreement on Trade in Services). Both countries want greater access for goods in several categories.

The U.K.’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy was in New Delhi last week to begin a “reset” of a somewhat troubled relationship the Labour Party has had with India, owing in part to its former positions on Kashmir. India and the U.K. launched a security technology partnership and agreed to cooperate closely on climate change, when the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary was in New Delhi.

Mr Lammy had told an audience in London on June 24 this year that a trade deal was the floor and not a ceiling of the U.K.-India relationship.