International Trade Secretary, Liz Truss touched down in Delhi to continue her winning spree of negotiating post Brexit trade deals demonstrating that we are a truly global Britain open for business.
Meeting her opposite number - India’s commerce and industry minister, Piyush Goyal - Liz has set the stage for what we hope will be a future free trade deal and the slashing of more barriers to trade. The deal is symbolic in rebooting the UK-India relationship to strengthen diplomatic and trade links with the world’s largest and fastest growing democracy.
Liz’s visit marks the start of a closer and more strategic trading relationship with India founded on science, technology, and a fierce belief in free enterprise and democracy. The symbolism of Liz’s visit is exactly right: India is going to be a major ally for Britain - especially now that we are out of the European Union, and it is Britain’s SMEs that will drive both our international trade and domestic economy in the future. For Britain to truly rebalance its economy after Covid-19, we need to vastly increase the number of exporting opportunities particularly for SMEs, and to retarget their work towards the markets of the future.
Britain is tailor made to provide exactly the skills and services needed to support Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Made in India’ drive. Many of our strongest exports –education, energy, health, financial services, and professional services- exactly mirror the markets India is looking to develop. More trade with India means higher-quality jobs in both countries, where a growing middle class can give rise to an increase in demand for British products and expertise.
That’s why UK has agreed to the outline of an Enhanced Trade Partnership with India. This will lay the groundwork for a potential Free Trade Agreement that will take our trade and investment relationship to new heights. We hope this partnership will formally be launched during Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to India later this year.
India and the UK are natural partners. We’re both democracies and market economies. Forging deeper ties with like-minded, fast-growing economies is exactly why we left the EU. Given our shared history, language and culture this is yet another incentive to tap into an industry where we have experience and strong ties to the 1.7 million strong British Indian diasporas to secure further trade for Britain.
The UK and India are life sciences and technology powerhouses. India has the third most tech startups in the world, while the UK has the third most tech unicorns. Our technologically advanced nations will take cutting-edge industries to the next level by going further and faster to push new boundaries of innovation
Our nations are already supporting each other through Covid by keeping vital supply chains open to protect our people from protectionism and collaborating on vaccine research. India is ‘the pharmacy of the world’, providing half the world’s vaccines and a quarter of the NHS’ unbranded drugs. The Serum Institute’s work with Oxford University, making the UK-developed AstraZeneca vaccine in India, shows the best of our relationship as we help save lives in our nations and beyond, which is enabling our countries to act as a global force for good during these challenging times.
Our trade relationship is already worth £24 billion a year, supporting more than half a million jobs. There are 842 Indian companies in the UK with a combined turnover of £41.2 billion, supporting jobs in every region and nation. But there is the potential for so much more. A deeper trading relationship will help us defend and advance our shared values of free enterprise and democracy, tackle climate change and promote greener trade worldwide.
Leaving the European Union has undoubtedly changed many things, but we mustn’t make the mistake of thinking that how we were doing things before was the best way. With her visit to India last week, Liz Truss is showing us what a better future could look like; we should all support her efforts.
