- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, who said last month that the latest political developments in Britain did not impact the ongoing negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between New Delhi and London, on Tuesday (10) said the negotiations were fast moving forward.
Speaking at the Vyaparai Udyami Sammelan traders’ meet in New Delhi, Goyal said India has signed a trade pace with the United Arab Emirates in a “record” time and “now our talks with the UK are moving at a faster pace”.
In January, India and the UK formally launched talks for the FTA and have set the deadline for concluding the talks by the time of Diwali, which is around October, this year. The agreements aim at boosting bilateral trade and investments between the two nations.
Goyal said India was also having similar pacts with nations such as Canada and Israel besides the European Union. He added that several other nations have also shown keen interest in making trade pacts with the South Asian nation, seen among the world’s fastest growing economies.
Goyal said blocs such as the Gulf Cooperation Council, Eurasian Economic Union and European Free Trade Association also wanted to negotiate pacts.
The minister, however, admitted that his ministry does not have adequate resources to simultaneously conduct free trade pact talks with more nations.
[With agency inputs]
