New Delhi, Sep 3 (PTI) Negotiations for the proposed free commerce settlement between India and the UK are on the final stage and the deadline of Diwali (in October) wouldn’t be missed, commerce secretary B V R Subrahmanyam mentioned on Saturday.

In April, either side had set the Diwali deadline for the conclusion of an India-UK Free Commerce Settlement (FTA).

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“We’re on observe (to fulfill the deadline). We’re within the final phases. 19 out of 26 chapters are closed. There are a few areas the place we’re negotiating… Diwali deadline will not be going to be missed,” he advised reporters right here.

Talks are occurring on sure items like vehicles and spirits from the UK aspect and sure merchandise from the Indian aspect.

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In January, each international locations formally launched talks for a free commerce settlement to spice up bilateral commerce and investments.

In such pacts, two international locations both get rid of or considerably scale back customs duties on the utmost variety of items traded between them in addition to easing norms for selling investments and companies commerce.

India’s predominant exports to the UK embody ready-made clothes and textiles, gems and jewelry, engineering items, petroleum and petrochemical merchandise, transport gear and components, spices, metallic merchandise, equipment and devices, pharma and marine gadgets.

Main imports embody valuable and semi-precious stones, ores and metallic scraps, engineering items, skilled devices, non-ferrous metals, chemical substances and equipment.

Within the companies sector, the UK is likely one of the largest markets in Europe for Indian IT companies. The bilateral commerce has elevated to USD 17.5 billion in 2021-22 in comparison with USD 13.2 billion in 2020-21. India’s exports stood at USD 10.5 billion in 2021-22, whereas imports had been USD 7 billion.

He added that India can see USD 10-15 billion uptake in exports from this pact.

On the proposed commerce pact with Canada, the secretary mentioned talks are on observe and two rounds have already been concluded.

“The third spherical shall be on the finish of September and the goal is that we are going to conclude it by December,” Subrahmanyam mentioned.

With the European Union, he mentioned that the second spherical will occur now and “we predict (it to conclude) in June-July subsequent yr”.

With Australia, he mentioned the commerce pact is anticipated to get approval from their parliament by the tip of this month. It was signed in April this yr.

“We’re pushing our FTAs… FTAs are an vital a part of our commerce technique ..It can open new markets,” he mentioned.

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