The 11th UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) held earlier this month addressed several key sectors including climate change, facilitating investments, and addressing concerns of the services sectors. The talks concluded successfully and gave an added push to a first-time Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between both the countries.
If finalized, this would prove to be a big win for British manufacturers as the average tariffs in India on UK exports are more than three times than those levied on Indian goods in the UK. Not to forget high non-tariff barriers India has in place, which would be addressed by the FTA.
At the EFD, both sides agreed to a package of almost £900 million in public and private finance for free projects and renewable energy. The UK Treasury said, “This includes a US$1 billion investment from the CDC, the UK’s development finance institution in green projects in India, joint investments by both governments to support companies working on innovative green tech solutions, and a new US$200 million private and multilateral investment into the joint Green Growth Equity Fund, which invests in Indian renewable energy.”
Both, UK and India also welcomed the launch of the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) India partnership that will mobilise private capital into sustainable infrastructure in India. The CFLI-India partnership paves the path for financing clean energy projects involving wind energy, solar power, and other green technologies. The partnership will be led by a group of leading financial institutions responsible for US$6.2 trillion worth of assets and is chaired by Michael Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions.
UK businesses and exporters had time till August 31 this year to submit their inputs on areas in the proposed FTA with India as part of a formal public consultation process. The next steps will involve the UK Department for International Trade processing these suggestions and finalising its negotiating position. Formal UK-India FTA talks are likely to start sometime before the end of 2021.
