India-UK FTA: India unlikely to commit on labour, environment issues

Trade experts said that it will be interesting to see if the UK will be willing to sign the trade deal, without India giving any commitments on the new-age trade issues

India is unlikely to make any commitments on new-generation (new-gen) trade issues such as labour and environment, with respect to the free trade agreement (FTA) currently being negotiated with the UK, said people aware of the matter.

India will push to make chapters on these issues ‘best endeavour’ in nature, one of the persons cited above told Business Standard. This means India will not agree upon any binding commitments on these issues, and discussions could be taken up at a later stage.

Trade experts said it will be interesting to see if the UK will be willing to sign the