Lord Karan Bilimoria, who was the President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) when negotiations for the India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) began (13 January 2022), is optimistic of its early conclusion. “As many as 14 rounds of negotiations are over and it’s a matter of time before this FTA is signed,” he said to Business India. “This will be amongst the most significant FTAs for both India and the UK and has the potential to enable bilateral trade to increase from the present $40 billion to $100 billion (a few years after it is implemented)”.
During his tenure as president, CBI, Bilimoria was also involved with negotiations for the UK’s FTA with Australia and New Zealand. “India is the fifth largest economy and the UK the sixth largest,” he affirmed. “So, one can imagine how beneficial this FTA will be for both nations”. During a recent visit to India, Bilimoria had meetings with Piyush Goyal, minister for commerce & industry, as also other officials from the ministry of commerce.
It is learnt that there are three major roadblocks in the India-UK FTA, which include tariffs on whiskey, automobiles and modalities of legal services (where lawyers could practice in each other’s country). However, Bilimoria refrained from making any comments on the roadblocks, as he felt the information was confidential.
Though former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced that the FTA would conclude by Diwali in 2022, it’s not been done yet. “I can’t talk of any deadline, but can comfortably state that this FTA would be comprehensive and will stand to benefit both India and the UK,” Billimoria added.
The next round of negotiations will be held in London, as the last round was held in Delhi (after an eight-month hiatus) when Jonathan Reynolds, secretary of state for business & trade, the UK, visited India on 24 February. He also met Goyal.
Unlocking opportunities
The resumption of negotiations was an outcome of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024. The British government, after the resumption of negotiations, had published a statement which said: “Both sides have agreed to resume negotiations through a balanced mutually beneficial and forward-looking deal that delivers mutual growth and builds on the strength of the two complimentary economies. The strengthening of the trading relationship between our two countries has the potential to unlock opportunities for business and consumers across both our nations and build further on our already deep ties”. The joint statement also said that PM Modi and PM Starmer had directed negotiators to work together to resolve the outstanding issues in the agreement to ensure a fair and equitable trade deal for shared success.
Meanwhile, Bilimoria, who founded Cobra Beer in 1989, had stepped down as chairman of the company in November 2024. He had a joint venture partnership with Molson Coors and this brand is available across over 6,600 restaurants across the UK. “The joint venture with Molson Coors was renewed for another five years, which came to an end last year and I thought it was a good time for me to step back and exit,” he explained. Bilimoria had moved to the UK when he was 19 years old to study law at Cambridge. At 63 years, he is a member of the House of Lords now.