The United Kingdom and India close to the final stages of commercial conversations

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India and the United Kingdom are blocked in the final stages of negotiating a free trade agreement with the two parties that arise about key demands in London this week, according to informed people on conversations.

The most intractable area of ​​disagreement is Delhi’s request to specimen the “carbon border tax” in the United Kingdom, from 2027, which would provide costs for Indian imports such as steel, according to two people who are aware of discussions.

It UK It is forceful that the problem is outside the parameters of free -trade bilateral negotiations due to the world commercial rules that require all nations to be treated equally, which India cannot be legally exempt from the regime.

According to one of the people, it was reported that the security points of the pharmaceutical and automobile sectors.

Five separate points were still agreed after talks between Indian Minister of Commerce, Pyush Goyal and the United Kingdom, on Tuesday afternoon, although several important chapters were signed, a person close to discussions said.

“Final courtyards are always the most difficult, but they move at a pace of pace,” the person said.

The agreement, which both parties say, would be the most significant trade agreement signed by the United Kingdom since leaving the EU in 2020.

One of Goyal’s officials said negotiations “seemed positive.” Another senior official of the Ministry of Commerce added that an agreement was in the “amazing distance”, warning that “the end of the queue takes longer”.

The pact has been in gestation for more than three years of negotiations where they were restarted in February after the return of United States President Donald Trump to the White House.

Goyal’s business secretary and the United Kingdom, Jonathan Reynolds, met with Business leaders in the United Kingdom on Tuesday at Downing Street, with the two positive parties on the perspective of an agreement, but did not commit to a calendar.

“They said they had productive and advanced meetings,” but one or two problems were on the table, “said an executive who attended.

Goyal will now travel to Norway and Brussels, but officials said it was possible for London to return to London on Saturday when it was still expected that an agreement could be reached in principle.

Other containment areas include whether Indian employees transferred to the United Kingdom should be exempt from national insurance contributions to prevent so -called “double tax” and the number of visas for Indian professionals.

Delhi has accepted that Britain will only offer up to 100 additional visas for Indian workers a year, according to the Politico website.

India opened commercial talks with Britain in 2022, but the recent threat of an “reciprocal” American rate 26 percent on Indians has renewed the impetus to conclude delayed negotiations.

Starmer has also called for faster trade conversations after the United States imposed a 10 percent amount on British imports.

Negotiations stopped in March last year ahead of the two countries, but were re -launched in February, shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

The two governments having said That the resumption of the conversations arose from the discussions between their respective prime ministers outside the G20 summit in November in Rio de Janeiro.

The bilateral trade between India and Britain, the fifth and sixth economies of the world respectively, reached $ 41 million ($ 54 million) in the 12 months until September 2024, according to the United Kingdom government. estimateswith India with a surplus.

The Business and Trade Department said that with only a good number of problems, it would not provide a comment on the final stages of the negotiation.