India-UK trade deal held up by ‘sticky’ issues as trade secretary visits Delhi

Published

9 months ago

August 23, 2023

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Kemi Badenoch heads to India this week in the hope of making progress on a trade deal, but government sources played down the prospect of an imminent breakthrough.

A source told Sky News that “tricky” issues have not yet been resolved as the talks enter their twelfth round, almost a year after a deadline announced by Boris Johnson.

Government insiders say a full trade agreement being struck in time for Rishi Sunak’s first official visit to India in September for the G20 summit is unlikely, despite “passion on both sides”.

“It’s about the deal and not the date. There are several outstanding issues, and you leave the really tricky stuff until the end,” a UK government source said.

A breakthrough in talks is not impossible, insiders said, but after criticism from ministers of the UK’s deal with Australia, they say officials are not working to a deadline.

These difficult issues are understood to include relaxation of visa rules for Indian workers – as well as continued wrangling on trade standards.

Ms Badenoch will attend a meeting of G20 trade ministers in Jaipur and then head to Delhi to meet with industry minister Piyush Goyal.

While in Delhi, she will also meet the chairman of Tata group Natarajan Chandrasekaran, to discuss the company’s investments in the UK including the steelworks at Port Talbot in South Wales.

A deal with India, which would be the largest bilateral post-Brexit trade deal the UK has struck, was one of Ms Badenoch’s key priorities as trade secretary. Progress is understood to have been made on agreements to reduce prohibitive import tariffs on cars and whisky – to open up opportunities for British firms.

India is predicted to be the world’s third largest economy by 2050, and the UK government estimated in 2019 that a trade deal could increase UK GDP by around £3.3bn by 2035.

MPs were critical of the announcement by Boris Johnson, who promised last April that a deal would be signed “by Diwali”, an Indian autumn festival that occurred last year in October. The deadline has long passed.

Ms Badenoch said in December, when embarking on an earlier round of negotiations, that an “amazing” deal was possible, but she had no plans to discuss if student visas were part of it. Time-limited visas for highly qualified workers were under discussion, she told a newspaper.

Her trip last year was billed as a reset for negotiations. Home Secretary Suella Braverman was said to have set back the talks when she said in an interview last year that she had “concerns about an open borders migration policy with India” and pointed out that “the largest group of people who overstay [their visas] are Indian migrants”.

Speaking to Sky News, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden, said his party would not rule anything out when asked if they opposed more visas being given to India.

Shadow trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The Conservatives’ record on trade negotiations has been to deliver bad deals or no deals at all.

“They committed to delivering agreements with India and with the United States by the end of 2022, yet failed to meet their own deadline. So them trumpeting the latest round of trade talks falls far short the concrete action needed to get any deal across the line.

“India is a key partner for the UK, we have deep historical links and it is a fast-growing economy, so Labour is committed to deepening our trade links.”

Mr Sunak‘s appointment as prime minister last year triggered great interest in India, with the TV station NDTV greeting it as an “Indian son rises over the Empire”.

With both he and Narendra Modi expecting to face elections next year, a government source said there was “genuine passion on both sides” for a deal to come together.

Recent reports in India have suggested a deal is closer than UK officials say. Indian commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal claimed in the summer that it could be signed “well before” the end of the year.

It would be India’s first free trade deal with a developed country, after an interim pact with Australia last year. Long-running talks have been held with the EU and US on trade.

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A Department of Business and Trade spokesperson said: “The UK and India are committed to working towards the best deal possible for both sides. We’ve made good progress in closing chapters, and are now laser-focused on goods, services, and investment.

“While we cannot comment on ongoing negotiations, we are clear that we will only sign when we have a deal that is fair, balanced, and ultimately in the best interests of the British people and the economy.

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UK closes ‘trust me bro’ crypto firm that gave horrible advice to clients

Published

11 hours ago

May 15, 2024

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UK closes ‘trust me bro’ crypto firm that gave horrible advice to clients

It comes just two weeks after the Insolvency Service secured a winding-up order against Amey’s firm in the United Kingdom High Court on April 30.

Politics

Age limits to be imposed on school sex education for first time, reports

Published

11 hours ago

May 15, 2024

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Schools won't be allowed to teach children that they can change their gender ID, reports say

Age limits are set to be imposed for the first time on when children can be taught sex education, according to reports.

Under the proposals, schools will be told not to teach children any form of sex education until year 5, when pupils are aged nine.

Other measures due to be announced by Education Secretary Gillian Keegan will prevent children from being taught they can change their gender, and rules out any explicit sexual conversations until the age of 13, according to The Times newspaper.

Thirteen would also be the age threshold for pupils to be taught about contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and abortion.

The new guidance is reportedly part of the Government’s response to concerns children are receiving age-inappropriate relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).

The Times reported that schools will be required to provide parents with samples of the material their children will be taught.

RSHE became compulsory in all English schools in September 2020.

The existing guidance outlines broad lesson modules, stating primary school children should be taught about alternative types of families and healthy relationships.

Secondary school aged children are taught more complex topics, including puberty, sexual relationships, consent, unsafe relationships, and online harms.

The Department for Education said it could not confirm the newspaper reports, and that it would not speculate on leaks.

Politics

UK to spend £140m on aid to Yemen to help ‘most desperate people in the world’, deputy foreign secretary says

Published

11 hours ago

May 15, 2024

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UK to spend £140m on aid to Yemen to help 'most desperate people in the world', deputy foreign secretary says

The UK will spend £140m next year helping starving people in Yemen who are suffering one of the most “acute humanitarian crises in the world”, the deputy foreign secretary has said.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Andrew Mitchell raised the plight of the Yemeni people, whom he said were living “on the margins of subsistence” following nearly a decade of civil war.

Mr Mitchell promised that the UK’s bilateral support for Yemen would increase by 60% and that any money provided would be designed “directly to help people who are in a very perilous humanitarian position”.

“It is Britain doing good, going to the rescue of the most desperate people in the world and helping them,” he said.

The deputy foreign secretary’s intervention comes following months of reporting from Yemen from Sky News’ special correspondent Alex Crawford, who has detailed how the war in Gaza has had an adverse impact on the Yemeni people.

Yemen’s Houthi militants, backed by Iran, have targeted ships in the Red Sea region which they claim are linked to Israel or helping its war effort.

The repeated missile and drone attacks by the Houthis since November have forced international cargo ships to be re-routed and take longer, more costly journeys around the Cape of Good Hope that has pushed up the price of goods in Yemen – already one of the poorest countries in the world.

However, the Houthis’ actions, while condemned by the West, have prompted demonstrations of support in the streets of Yemen, where solidarity is expressed with Palestinians in Gaza.

Mr Mitchell said 70% of the food that gets into Yemen goes through ports used by international shipping and was therefore being put at risk by the Houthis’ actions.

“It is often impeded in getting there by what the Houthis are doing in disrupting the flow of international shipping,” he explained.

“So that is very bad – and, an example of the terrible effect of the Houthis are having on their own people as well as on the wider international community.”

Asked what the international community was doing to bring about peace in Yemen, Mr Mitchell replied: “Well, Britain holds the pen, in the jargon of the trade, at the United Nations. So we lead on Yemen.

“And, recently we’ve been trying to make sure that the negotiations, which the UN special representative has been involved in, are successful.

“There’s a very different situation now from what there was a couple of years ago with the Saudis. And there is a peace process that is there for the taking.

“We urge all the different parties who are involved in Yemen to get involved in that peace process, to bring an end to a terrible situation, which, above all, millions of ordinary people in Yemen are suffering from.”