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The long road to India-UK trade deal: ETP in 2021 to FTA in 2025
Britain and India announced Tuesday that they have agreed on a long-stalled free trade agreement that will slash tariffs on Scotch whisky and scores of other products. The deal comes more than three years after negotiations started and stalled under a previous British government.
Britain has sought to bolster trade ties across the world since it left the EU at the start of the decade, a need that strengthened after the United States unleashed tariffs that risk weaker economic growth.
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Following is the chronology of the developments that led to the conclusion of the India-UK free trade agreement.
May 4, 2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (the then) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched an 'Enhanced Trade Partnership' (ETP) to unleash the trade potential between the two economies. As part of the ETP, they agreed on a roadmap to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced FTA.
Jan 13, 2022: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched the Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the United Kingdom, along with the then UK Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan in New Delhi.
Both parties agreed to start the first round of negotiations on 17-28 January and hold future rounds of negotiations approximately every five weeks.
Jan 2022 - Jan 2025: A total of 14 rounds of negotiations were held between officials of the two countries.
March 2024: Negotiations were paused due to Indian general elections; both sides agreed to resume discussions post-election.
February 2025: Goyal and UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds announced the resumption of negotiations. It was resumed after a gap of over eight months because of elections in Britain.
Apr 28, 2025: Goyal visited London for the FTA talks with his UK counterpart, Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
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May 2, 2025: Goyal again held discussions with Reynolds.
May 6, 2025: India and the UK announced the conclusion of negotiations for FTA, along with the Double Contribution Convention pact.
'Today we have agreed a landmark deal with India – one of the fastest growing economies in the world, which will grow the economy and deliver for British people and business,' UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.
His Labour government added it is 'the biggest and most economically significant bilateral trade deal the UK has done since leaving the EU'.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the deal as 'ambitious and mutually' beneficial.
The pact will help 'catalyse trade, investment, growth, job creation, and innovation in both our economies', Modi said in a post on social media platform X.
His office said in a statement the deal will 'unlock new potential for the two nations to jointly develop products and services for global markets'.
It added that Modi had invited Starmer to visit India at an unspecified date.
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With inputs from agencies
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And again, much of the claims are reported to have been based in surveys and studies, and without any significant exploratory effort. It is also worth noting that hydrocarbon exploration itself is an extremely expensive and long-gestation endeavour that could last multiple years, which is usually followed by another years-long development phase, before commercial production can start. For Pakistan, this would mean a significant lead time before any of its potential oil reserves can be tapped into, apart from billions of dollars' worth of investments that its fragile economy may not be able to afford. Perhaps that is where one or more of the American oil majors might come in with their deep pockets.
