London, September 3 — UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ruled out a quick-fix trade agreement with India, making it hard to finalise a deal in time for this week’s G20 conference in Delhi or maybe even before the elections of next year, according to the media.
The UK prime minister has rejected the concept of a “early harvest” agreement, which may have decreased tariffs on products like whisky but would not have addressed difficult topics like professional services, according to many people familiar with the discussions who spoke to The Guardian.
Any prospect of reaching a deal this week before the prime minister meets with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in the Indian capital this weekend has been destroyed by the decision.
A agreement might still be achieved later this year, but many now think it’s unlikely to happen before both nations’ elections in 2024, according to The Guardian.
It indicates that the possibility of a free trade deal between the UK and India, which has long been touted as one of the largest chances for Britain after Brexit, is still far off.
According to a government source, there was discussion of a deal before Diwali last year, but that was only going to happen if it was a brief agreement centred on a small selection of items. The trade secretary Kemi Badenoch and Rishi Sunak have eliminated a deadline after deciding they don’t want to go that path.
A second source with direct knowledge of the discussions added: “India wants to do an early agreement on goods, but the risk is that instead of being the start of a wider trade agreement, that becomes the end point and the UK doesn’t get any of the more fundamental things it wants.”
