London, Feb 11: The UK government has highlighted its first mover advantage by signing a free trade agreement (FTA) with a rapidly growing Indian economy ahead of the European Union (EU), which it claimed had used Britain’s deal as a “baseline”.
During a House of Commons debate on the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) earlier this week, the Opposition Conservatives insisted the deal with “one of the largest economies on the planet, which is growing approximately five times faster than the European Union” could have been better.
“British businesses needed something with a really good kick in it to get this country growing. Instead of a vindaloo of a deal, the Prime Minister came back with a bag of soggy poppadoms,” said Andrew Griffith, shadow business and trade secretary.
Chris Bryant, minister of state in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), responded on behalf of the Labour government to stress that CETA was a “momentous achievement” which goes “well beyond India’s precedent in opening the door for UK businesses”.
“On services, the way we transacted this deal means it is supported by the Federation of Small Businesses, HSBC, Standard Chartered, EY, TheCityUK and Revolut, and I do not think they think of the deal as ‘soggy poppadoms’ at all; I think they think of it as a fine tandoori,” said Bryant.
Setting out the DBT data at the outset, the minister highlighted that India and the UK did 47.2 billion pounds worth of trade last year, which was up 15 per cent year on year and placed India as the country’s tenth-largest trading partner.
“India has the highest growth rate in the G20. It is likely to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2029. By 2050, India will be home to more than a quarter of a billion high-income consumers. Demand for imports is due to grow as well, reaching 2.8 trillion pounds by 2050. Assuming global foreign direct investment into India continues on its recent trajectory, it could grow to 1 trillion pounds by 2033,” the minister stated.
He highlighted that the trade deal signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK last year would boost Britain’s GDP by 4.8 billion pounds, wages by 2.2 billion pounds and bilateral trade by 25.5 billion pounds every year by 2040.
India will drop tariffs on 90 per cent of lines, covering 92 per cent of current UK exports, giving the UK tariff savings of 400 million pounds a year immediately on entry into force, rising to 900 million pounds after 10 years, with average India tariffs falling from 15 per cent to 3 per cent.
“Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, so I am glad that the European Union has now reached political agreement on its own FTA with India, for which it seems the UK deal was used as a baseline, but the UK retains first mover advantage.
“I am hopeful that we will get to entry into force before the end of the summer, so that UK businesses can start exploiting the reduced tariffs this year, while the EU will still take some time to achieve ratification, and only the UK has secured access to India’s 38 billion pounds federal procurement market,” Bryant told MPs.
The Double Contributions Convention (DCC), signed off in Delhi this week to ensure temporary workers would not have to duplicate social levies in either country, came under criticism from some Opposition members.
“The deal will not undermine British workers… and it will not make it cheaper to use Indian workers. This agreement is about highly skilled workers employed by Indian companies on a temporary basis paying contributions to their own country rather than in the UK,” stressed Bryant.
He admitted that while the Prime Minister Keir Starmer-led government “would have preferred” to have been able to secure a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) alongside the CETA, it stands ready to start that process “whenever India would like to do so”.
The British Parliament is ratifying the agreement signed by Modi and Starmer last July, including debates across both Houses and reviews by relevant committees on all aspects of the FTA, before it can be implemented in the coming months.
