High duty on whisky in India a hurdle: UK

LONDON: The high import duty imposed by India on the import of whisky is one of the “main problems” in reaching a free trade deal with the country, according to Liam Fox, trade secretary in the Theresa May government.

Fox told Martin Docherty-hughes of the Scottish National Party during a debate on trade agreements in Commonwealth countries in the House of Commons that Britain continued to urge India to reduce the import tariff.

Docherty-hughes asked: “Ironically, a trade deal between India and the European Union is more likely to be agreed by the remaining EU27, as two of the main stumbling blocks are whisky and visas, which mainly involve the United Kingdom”.

“Therefore, will the Secretary of State advise me, the House and my constituents at the Auchentoshan distillery and the Loch Lomond distillery how they will seek to overcome that when the Government will be all alone?”

Fox, who recently visited India and is keen on a free trade deal with India in the post-brexit situation, responded: “One of the main problems with India, of course, is the tariff that it applies on whisky. We have been involved in a trade review with India for some months now, and part of the process is to look at the areas where we require liberalisation to bring our two economies close enough to be able to consider a free trade agreement”.

“The high tariff applied on Scotch whisky by India is one of the impediments, and we continue to urge them to reduce that”, Fox added.

The Edinburgh-based Scotch Whisky Association has been campaigning for several years for lower import duties in India since, according to the industry body, the higher tariff is adversely affecting expansion of exports in a country where the demand for Scotch products has been growing.