‘Free trade deal will have global impact’
JOHNSON AND MODI SET DIWALI DEADLINE FOR PACT, SAYS UK MINISTER
A BRITISH government minister, Lord Gerry Grimstone, has expressed optimism and confidence that a UK-India trade deal will be signed “by Diwali”, writes Amit Roy.
Grimstone, who was appointed the unpaid minister for investment jointly at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy in March 2020, was speaking last week at the launch of Grant Thornton’s India meets Britain Tracker: The latest trends in Indian investment in the UK 2022.
Grimstone, who was previously chairman of Barclays Bank and of Standard Life, and has long experience of India, said Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi, the British and Indian prime ministers respectively, “have given our negotiators very strict instructions to get the deal done by Diwali. And I wouldn’t want to be that negotiator who had to tell either prime minister that that wasn’t possible. So I’m very confident about progress to that timetable.”
He went on: “We aim to simplify cross-border investment. That encompasses both goods and services, particularly digital services, where British and Indian businesses coming together can make a real global impact. And so I couldn’t be more confident that this deal will sow the seeds for even more of Indian success stories.
“I couldn’t be more optimistic for the future with our partnership between our governments. I couldn’t be more optimistic about our ability to achieve the forward-looking free trade agreements. And most importantly, I couldn’t be more optimistic about how investment in our trade is just going to grow and grow.”
He could not accompany Johnson on his trip to India due to a “rogue PCR test which came back positive. I’m so disappointed because if I had gone, it would have been the fourth British prime minister whose plane I had travelled on to India.”
He said: “As you might guess from my background, I am passionate about India, its people, its businesses and its growth. I have visited India many, many times.
“On each and every visit that one goes to India, you can’t help but be struck by the drive, the desire to achieve and the determination of Indians to do business, create wealth and trade with the world. That is great. As the Tracker shows, that spirit isn’t just in India. It’s been brought to the UK by Indian companies as well.”
He commented: “In the last five years of the 2010s, Indian investment into the UK has more than quadrupled. We calculate that it supports almost half a million jobs on our shores. And, of course, British investment into India has grown very significantly as well.
“Together most of our businesses are growing the green economy. And I believe this will be an increasing feature of Indian investment into Britain. This is a relationship that has been defined by a deep-rooted partnership between our people, between our governments, between our businesses. For example, think of the partnership between AstraZeneca and the Serum Institute of India, and look at the benefit that has brought to the world.”
He referred to the Johnson-Modi meeting. “How useful the meeting was, and the seeds that were planted to further our partnership over the coming years were astounding.
“Our new extended defence and security partnership, for example, is absolutely going to help the growth of the Indian defence industry, and the great ‘Manufacture in India’ slogan. Our cooperation on energy security is going to help wean us all off imported hydrocarbons, and adopt lower cost, more sustainable homegrown renewables.
“On this visit alone, the prime minister announced new deals worth more than £1 billion that will create more than 11,000 British jobs. I’m expecting that barometer to be raised even higher next year.”
The launch was attended by representatives of nearly 80 of the top companies mentioned in the report.
In her response, the Indian high commissioner in London, Gaitri Issar Kumar, who went to India to greet Johnson on arrival, also indicated there was a sense of urgency to get a deal done by Diwali.
She said: “Both our governments are creating a positive policy environment, and a very, very strong implementing
system mechanisms to take things very fast to the next levels. And so climate, trade and defence are the three new absolute priorities, and the areas where we bring together our complementary strengths.”
She said High Commission staff in London were now very busy dealing with incoming delegations from India. “This month I stopped counting – we have two chief ministers, one minister of information, any number of road shows. The big highlight on my horizon is the fact that we have the secretary of defence production coming here for the first time. And we will also have the commerce and industries minister, Piyush Goyal, who is leading the negotiations and the work from the Indian side on achieving the target of doubling our bilateral trade by 2030.”
She announced that on May 27, Goyal would meet stakeholders from both sides.
“You can then interact with the commerce minister and weigh in where it’s important and necessary.”
On defence and security, “we are now really seriously going to talk about how the two industries are going to be connecting up – on specific things to be produced, specific platforms, specific equipment.
“And for that the High Commission will be organising virtual meets to connect people for a start, then we move swiftly into dialogue engagements. We will organise our industry
and the Confederation of British Industry to start talking to each other about very, very specific things.”
During his visit, Johnson had “amplified” the areas he wanted to focus on – such as climate change.
“And our prime minister (Modi) said, ‘Yes, I agree 100 per cent.’ This was climate action, climate technology, climate financing.”
Since Johnson’s visit, much of India has suffered exceptionally high summer temperatures.
Kumar said Modi had mentioned to Johnson “that he was very interested in educational institutions and philanthropic organisations over here (in the UK) coming to work in the area of education to ensure a twoway movement of students.
“That is British students coming to India, seeing India, learning about India, coming to our universities. Also UK universities setting up faculties or campuses in which students study one part of the course in India and the next part here in the same institutions in the UK.”
Kumar appeared to suggest that India would like to encourage more British investment in India because the traffic at the moment seemed to be mainly one way.
She said Grimstone had mentioned the investment of more of £1bn that had been announced by Johnson and Modi. “The inside information is that most of that is from India to the UK.”