Starmer, Modi hail 'historic' UK-India trade deal
Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi met at Chequers, the British leader's official country residence outside London, where the UK and Indian trade ministers, Jonathan Reynolds and Piyush Goyal, formally signed the agreement.
Starmer said it was "the biggest and most economically significant trade deal" Britain has made since leaving the European Union in 2020.
Modi said it was "a historic day in our bilateral relations."
Alongside the agreement, the two countries announced almost STG6 billion ($A12 billion) in trade and investment deals in areas including AI, aerospace and dairy products, and pledged to work more closely together in areas such as defence, migration, climate and health.
The trade agreement between India and Britain, the world's fifth- and sixth-largest economies, was announced in May, more than three years after negotiations started, and stalled, under Britain's previous Conservative government.
The UK government said the deal will reduce India's average tariff on British goods from 15 per cent to three per cent. Import taxes on whisky and gin will be halved from 150 per cent to 75 per cent before falling to 40 per cent by year 10 of the deal. Automotive tariffs will fall from over 100 per cent to 10 per cent under a quota.
Britain said the deal is expected to increase bilateral trade by STG25.5 billion annually from 2040 and add almost STG5 billion a year to the British economy.
India's Trade Ministry said in May that 99 per cent of Indian exports will face no import duty under the deal, which applies to products including clothes, shoes and food.
Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain left the EU. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by the Diwali holiday in October of that year.
The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024.
Almost two million people in the UK have roots in India, where Britain was the colonial power until independence in 1947.
Starmer said Britain and India "have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture, and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term."
Speaking as England and India face off in a Test cricket series, Modi sad the sport was "a great metaphor for our partnership."
"There may be a swing and a miss at times but we always play with a straight bat," he said. "We are committed to building a high-scoring, solid partnership."
with Reuters
Britain and India have signed a free trade agreement during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sealing a deal to cut tariffs on goods from textiles to whisky and cars and allow more market access for businesses.
Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi met at Chequers, the British leader's official country residence outside London, where the UK and Indian trade ministers, Jonathan Reynolds and Piyush Goyal, formally signed the agreement.
Starmer said it was "the biggest and most economically significant trade deal" Britain has made since leaving the European Union in 2020.
Modi said it was "a historic day in our bilateral relations."
Alongside the agreement, the two countries announced almost STG6 billion ($A12 billion) in trade and investment deals in areas including AI, aerospace and dairy products, and pledged to work more closely together in areas such as defence, migration, climate and health.
The trade agreement between India and Britain, the world's fifth- and sixth-largest economies, was announced in May, more than three years after negotiations started, and stalled, under Britain's previous Conservative government.
The UK government said the deal will reduce India's average tariff on British goods from 15 per cent to three per cent. Import taxes on whisky and gin will be halved from 150 per cent to 75 per cent before falling to 40 per cent by year 10 of the deal. Automotive tariffs will fall from over 100 per cent to 10 per cent under a quota.
Britain said the deal is expected to increase bilateral trade by STG25.5 billion annually from 2040 and add almost STG5 billion a year to the British economy.
India's Trade Ministry said in May that 99 per cent of Indian exports will face no import duty under the deal, which applies to products including clothes, shoes and food.
Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain left the EU. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by the Diwali holiday in October of that year.
The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024.
Almost two million people in the UK have roots in India, where Britain was the colonial power until independence in 1947.
Starmer said Britain and India "have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture, and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term."
Speaking as England and India face off in a Test cricket series, Modi sad the sport was "a great metaphor for our partnership."
"There may be a swing and a miss at times but we always play with a straight bat," he said. "We are committed to building a high-scoring, solid partnership."
with Reuters
Britain and India have signed a free trade agreement during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sealing a deal to cut tariffs on goods from textiles to whisky and cars and allow more market access for businesses.
Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi met at Chequers, the British leader's official country residence outside London, where the UK and Indian trade ministers, Jonathan Reynolds and Piyush Goyal, formally signed the agreement.
Starmer said it was "the biggest and most economically significant trade deal" Britain has made since leaving the European Union in 2020.
Modi said it was "a historic day in our bilateral relations."
Alongside the agreement, the two countries announced almost STG6 billion ($A12 billion) in trade and investment deals in areas including AI, aerospace and dairy products, and pledged to work more closely together in areas such as defence, migration, climate and health.
The trade agreement between India and Britain, the world's fifth- and sixth-largest economies, was announced in May, more than three years after negotiations started, and stalled, under Britain's previous Conservative government.
The UK government said the deal will reduce India's average tariff on British goods from 15 per cent to three per cent. Import taxes on whisky and gin will be halved from 150 per cent to 75 per cent before falling to 40 per cent by year 10 of the deal. Automotive tariffs will fall from over 100 per cent to 10 per cent under a quota.
Britain said the deal is expected to increase bilateral trade by STG25.5 billion annually from 2040 and add almost STG5 billion a year to the British economy.
India's Trade Ministry said in May that 99 per cent of Indian exports will face no import duty under the deal, which applies to products including clothes, shoes and food.
Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain left the EU. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by the Diwali holiday in October of that year.
The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024.
Almost two million people in the UK have roots in India, where Britain was the colonial power until independence in 1947.
Starmer said Britain and India "have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture, and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term."
Speaking as England and India face off in a Test cricket series, Modi sad the sport was "a great metaphor for our partnership."
"There may be a swing and a miss at times but we always play with a straight bat," he said. "We are committed to building a high-scoring, solid partnership."
with Reuters
Britain and India have signed a free trade agreement during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sealing a deal to cut tariffs on goods from textiles to whisky and cars and allow more market access for businesses.
Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi met at Chequers, the British leader's official country residence outside London, where the UK and Indian trade ministers, Jonathan Reynolds and Piyush Goyal, formally signed the agreement.
Starmer said it was "the biggest and most economically significant trade deal" Britain has made since leaving the European Union in 2020.
Modi said it was "a historic day in our bilateral relations."
Alongside the agreement, the two countries announced almost STG6 billion ($A12 billion) in trade and investment deals in areas including AI, aerospace and dairy products, and pledged to work more closely together in areas such as defence, migration, climate and health.
The trade agreement between India and Britain, the world's fifth- and sixth-largest economies, was announced in May, more than three years after negotiations started, and stalled, under Britain's previous Conservative government.
The UK government said the deal will reduce India's average tariff on British goods from 15 per cent to three per cent. Import taxes on whisky and gin will be halved from 150 per cent to 75 per cent before falling to 40 per cent by year 10 of the deal. Automotive tariffs will fall from over 100 per cent to 10 per cent under a quota.
Britain said the deal is expected to increase bilateral trade by STG25.5 billion annually from 2040 and add almost STG5 billion a year to the British economy.
India's Trade Ministry said in May that 99 per cent of Indian exports will face no import duty under the deal, which applies to products including clothes, shoes and food.
Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain left the EU. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by the Diwali holiday in October of that year.
The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024.
Almost two million people in the UK have roots in India, where Britain was the colonial power until independence in 1947.
Starmer said Britain and India "have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture, and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term."
Speaking as England and India face off in a Test cricket series, Modi sad the sport was "a great metaphor for our partnership."
"There may be a swing and a miss at times but we always play with a straight bat," he said. "We are committed to building a high-scoring, solid partnership."
with Reuters
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The deal mirrors key parts of the framework agreement the United States clinched with Japan last week. "We are agreeing that the tariff ... for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15 per cent," Trump said. That rate will not, however, apply to steel and aluminium, for which a 50 per cent tariff will remain in place, although von der Leyen said it would be cut and replaced with a quota system. Von der Leyen said the rate also applied to semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, and there would be no tariffs from either side on aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. "We will keep working to add more products to this list," she said, adding that the situation on spirits was still to be established. Trump, who is seeking to reorder the global economy and reduce decades-old US trade deficits, has so far reeled in agreements with Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, although his administration has failed to deliver on a promise of "90 deals in 90 days." Arriving in Scotland, Trump said the EU wanted "to make a deal very badly" and said, as he met von der Leyen, that Europe had been "very unfair to the United States". His main bugbear is the US merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 reached $US235 bn ($A353 bn), according to US Census Bureau data. The EU points to the US surplus in services, which it says partially redresses the balance. Trump also talked on Sunday about the "hundreds of billions of dollars" that tariffs were bringing in. The United States has struck a framework trade deal with the European Union, imposing a 15 per cent import tariff on most EU goods, but averting a spiralling battle between two allies which account for almost a third of global trade. The announcement came after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled for talks with US President Donald Trump at his golf course in western Scotland to push a hard-fought deal over the line. "I think this is the biggest deal ever made," Trump told reporters after an hour-long meeting with von der Leyen, who said the 15 per cent tariff applied "across the board". "We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability," she said. The deal, which also includes $US600 billion ($A901 bn) of EU investments in the United States and $US750 bn ($A1.1 trillion) of EU purchases of US energy over Trump's second term, will indeed bring clarity for EU companies. Even so, the baseline tariff will be seen by many in Europe as a poor outcome compared with the initial European ambition of a zero-for-zero tariff deal, although it is better than the threatened 30 per cent rate. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal, saying in a statement that a trade conflict had been averted that would have hit Germany's export-driven economy and its large auto sector hard. But Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs the trade committee of the European Parliament, said he was "quite critical" because the tariffs were imbalanced and the pledged investment would likely come at the expense of EU industry. The euro rose around 0.2 per cent against the dollar, sterling and yen within an hour of the deal being announced. The deal mirrors key parts of the framework agreement the United States clinched with Japan last week. "We are agreeing that the tariff ... for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15 per cent," Trump said. That rate will not, however, apply to steel and aluminium, for which a 50 per cent tariff will remain in place, although von der Leyen said it would be cut and replaced with a quota system. Von der Leyen said the rate also applied to semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, and there would be no tariffs from either side on aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. "We will keep working to add more products to this list," she said, adding that the situation on spirits was still to be established. Trump, who is seeking to reorder the global economy and reduce decades-old US trade deficits, has so far reeled in agreements with Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, although his administration has failed to deliver on a promise of "90 deals in 90 days." Arriving in Scotland, Trump said the EU wanted "to make a deal very badly" and said, as he met von der Leyen, that Europe had been "very unfair to the United States". His main bugbear is the US merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 reached $US235 bn ($A353 bn), according to US Census Bureau data. The EU points to the US surplus in services, which it says partially redresses the balance. Trump also talked on Sunday about the "hundreds of billions of dollars" that tariffs were bringing in. The United States has struck a framework trade deal with the European Union, imposing a 15 per cent import tariff on most EU goods, but averting a spiralling battle between two allies which account for almost a third of global trade. The announcement came after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled for talks with US President Donald Trump at his golf course in western Scotland to push a hard-fought deal over the line. "I think this is the biggest deal ever made," Trump told reporters after an hour-long meeting with von der Leyen, who said the 15 per cent tariff applied "across the board". "We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability," she said. The deal, which also includes $US600 billion ($A901 bn) of EU investments in the United States and $US750 bn ($A1.1 trillion) of EU purchases of US energy over Trump's second term, will indeed bring clarity for EU companies. Even so, the baseline tariff will be seen by many in Europe as a poor outcome compared with the initial European ambition of a zero-for-zero tariff deal, although it is better than the threatened 30 per cent rate. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal, saying in a statement that a trade conflict had been averted that would have hit Germany's export-driven economy and its large auto sector hard. But Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs the trade committee of the European Parliament, said he was "quite critical" because the tariffs were imbalanced and the pledged investment would likely come at the expense of EU industry. The euro rose around 0.2 per cent against the dollar, sterling and yen within an hour of the deal being announced. The deal mirrors key parts of the framework agreement the United States clinched with Japan last week. "We are agreeing that the tariff ... for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15 per cent," Trump said. That rate will not, however, apply to steel and aluminium, for which a 50 per cent tariff will remain in place, although von der Leyen said it would be cut and replaced with a quota system. Von der Leyen said the rate also applied to semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, and there would be no tariffs from either side on aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. "We will keep working to add more products to this list," she said, adding that the situation on spirits was still to be established. Trump, who is seeking to reorder the global economy and reduce decades-old US trade deficits, has so far reeled in agreements with Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, although his administration has failed to deliver on a promise of "90 deals in 90 days." Arriving in Scotland, Trump said the EU wanted "to make a deal very badly" and said, as he met von der Leyen, that Europe had been "very unfair to the United States". His main bugbear is the US merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 reached $US235 bn ($A353 bn), according to US Census Bureau data. The EU points to the US surplus in services, which it says partially redresses the balance. Trump also talked on Sunday about the "hundreds of billions of dollars" that tariffs were bringing in.
