India-UK affirm shared commitment to a Free Trade Agreement

New Delhi, July 25 (HS): India and UK held the 14th Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting virtually that was co-chaired by Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and UK Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss. They were assisted by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Hardeep Singh Puri and his counterpart, UK Minister of State for International Trade Ranil Jayawardena.

Both leaders affirmed their shared commitment to a Free Trade Agreement and towards that, Early Harvest deals in a staged manner.  Puri and Jayawardena will have monthly meetings to intensify the dialogue. It was decided that a meeting led by Goyal and Truss will be held in autumn 2020 in New Delhi to carry forward the dialogue.

The formal talks were followed by a plenary session led by Hardeep Singh Puri, Ranil Jayawardena and Gerry Grimstone interacting with business leaders which included Chandrajit Banerjee DG CII and Alay Piramal, Co-Chair of the India UK CEOs’ Forum.