UK India on Track for Free Trade Agreement by Diwali: Piyush Goyal
London, May 27: India's Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, formally flagged off UK-India Week 2022, organised by UK-headquartered India Global Forum (IGF), at a special curtain raiser event in London with a positive message of a win-win Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the works for the two nations.
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In conversation with IGF Founder Professor Manoj Ladwa at Taj 51 Buckingham Gate on May 26th evening, the senior Indian Cabinet Minister shared insights on a wide range of subjects - from his recent interactions at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos with businesses around the world keen on investing in the India story to the Narendra Modi led government's increasingly FTA-friendly and outward-looking engagement with the world.
The minister said: "There's a big difference between the mood in India and the mood in the rest of the world. In India, there's a lot of excitement about the future, our young India is looking at the future with great hope and aspiration. Davos, unfortunately, represented quite a bit of doom and gloom. Most of the engagements showed that participants were very disturbed, concerned, slightly pessimistic about the future of multilateralism, already talking about deglobalisation. We in India look at the future with great optimism, we believe these things will also pass as have many other challenges. India is ready to engage with the world from a position of strength."
On the subject of FTAs, he pointed to the two fast deals clinched with the UAE and Australia, with Canada progressing well towards an Early Harvest Agreement.
The minister added: "With the UK, we had agreed to do an Early Harvest Agreement - basically, to grab the low-hanging fruits and leave the more difficult elements for the next stage and give the people of both countries the confidence that this agreement is a win-win and create an automatic demand for more. But the way things are progressing, we'll actually land up doing a full FTA with the UK by Diwali. We are working towards a fair deal and a win-win for both countries."
The event brought together prominent UK-based parliamentarians, business chiefs and academics to set the tone for IGF's UK-India Week 2022 next month, themed around Reimagine@75 - as a celebration of 75 years of India's independence and UK-India ties.
