India-UK CETA Comes Into Force; Officials Hope Bilateral Trade Will Rise To USD 100 Billion

Mumbai, July 15: Hours after the operationalisation of the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a senior British official said the landmark deal will deliver "tangible business outcomes" for both partner countries.

Harjinder Kang, the UK's Trade Commissioner for South Asia and British Deputy High Commissioner to Western India, also hoped that the agreement would eventually lead to a jump in bilateral trade to USD 100 billion from the present USD 60 billion.

Trade Benefits From Pact

"'... as of midnight, we are now able to send goods and services between the two countries on the new trading terms that we've agreed," he told PTI Videos in an interaction here.

Nearly 99 per cent of the goods and services being exported by India to the UK, and 90 per cent of the goods and services imported by the country, will now attract lower or zero tariffs, he said, stressing that the deal will benefit consumers in both countries by lowering costs.

"'... in effect, there are some very, very good tangible outcomes for both economies and for the customers and the buyers at the end-users of these things in both markets," he said.

Kang said an analysis suggests that the trading capacity will increase by GBP 25 billion through the deal, and hoped that CETA will help elevate bilateral trade to USD 100 billion at an accelerated pace.

Focus On Investment Growth

He also singled out the financial services sector and, in particular, Mumbai, the country's financial capital, to benefit from the deal.

When asked about investments, Kang said the increase in confidence levels and expansion of the trading relationship should help in upping the trend of investments as well.

The greater focus now is on creating awareness about the deal among businesses for them to take the best advantage of the pact, he said, adding that the UK has reached out to 10,000 local entities with the message recently.

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Geopolitical Stability Helps Trade

Changes on the geopolitical front will have no impact on the bilateral trade pact, he said, adding that the key is to give businesses clarity.

"There is, as you can see, a lot of geopolitical turbulence right now, and it's good that two trusting partners such as India and the UK have agreed on this CETA. At least there's some degree of certainty now for businesses along this corridor, and certainly I think that will build," Kang said.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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