Still looking for free trade deal with India by Diwali, says Britain

Britain still wants to agree a free trade deal with India by Diwali later this month, Prime Minister Liz Truss's spokesman said on Wednesday.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who met Indian leader Narendra Modi in April, set an ambitious target to sign the free trade agreement by Diwali, the Indian festival of lights in late October.

Asked if the government still wanted a trade deal by this date, Max Blain, official spokesman for Truss, said the government was still hoping to get a trade deal with India by late October “that would put the UK front of the queue to supply India’s growing middle class and boost the UK economy by more than £3 billion by 2035.” Blain declined to comment on remarks reportedly made by Braverman about migration. “There are complex negotiations ongoing across a range of issues,” he told reporters in a regular briefing on Wednesday.

Talks between India and the UK have hit a snag over easier access to thousands of skilled workers from the South Asian nation that is likely to push finalising a free-trade agreement beyond the October deadline.  

India’s position has hardened in the ongoing negotiations amid concerns raised by UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman on migration from India. 

New Delhi is also seeking to claw back half a billion pounds in payments made by Indian workers toward Britain’s social security system as part of the deal, people familiar with the matter said. 

Further, the UK’s offer to restrict movement of skilled workers would skew the proposed trade deal in favor of Britain and wouldn’t be a win-win for both nations, the people said.