Ministers committed to remove market access barriers
India and the United Kingdom have agreed to launch later this year the Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) which is a part of the development of a roadmap that would lead to a potential comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA), including considerations on an Interim Agreement on preferential basis, said the Commerce and Industry Ministry on 8 Feb 2021.
This was agreed during a meeting held by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal with the UK Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss on 6 Feb 2021 in New Delhi.
Taking forward their commitment from the 14th Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) on 24 July 2020, Goyal and Truss reviewed the ongoing engagements between the two sides for the ETP, which they agreed to launch during the visit of the UK Prime Minister to India later this year.
The Ministers agreed to further accelerate the process towards launch of the ETP, and committed to interact on a regular basis, while identifying quick and concrete bilateral deliverables that could cement the ETP and immediately benefit the people of both countries.
The Ministers also committed themselves to make concrete progress on trade and investment front to deliver quick gains for both countries including joint timelines for further advances.
They also reviewed progress in removing market access barriers on both sides and ongoing cooperation in response to COVID-19.
The Ministers welcomed the deepening of bilateral health cooperation between the two countries, including on vaccines, which is enabling our countries to act as a global force for good during these challenging times.
The Ministers committed to relaunch the UK-India CEO Forum and agreed on the CEO Forum meeting at the earliest.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to work with businesses to improve the business environment and collectively address the challenges to post-COVID-19 economic recovery, said the Ministry. #exports #trade #investment #projects #imports /fiinews.com
