UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is likely to visit India on April 26, BusinessLine reports. The visit comes amid ongoing efforts in both countries to finalise possible trade and investment agreements that could be signed during the visit.

“The UK Prime Minister’s visit is more or less finalised for April 26 and the on-going vaccination drive in both countries has minimised the chances of a further delay due to the pandemic. Hopefully, there will not be another re-scheduling,” an official said.

Johnson was supposed to visit India in January as the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations but the visit had to be put off because of the out-break of the new strain of COVID-19 virus in the UK.

The British PM is also expected to personally invite his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to join the G-7 summit scheduled in Cornwall in June this year.

Is a ‘mini-deal’ likely?

The pacts that are being worked out by officials in the two countries include ones on reducing non-tariff barriers and boosting services, an official said.

India is keen on an early free trade agreement with the UK, and has been pushing for a ‘mini-deal’, although it is unlikely that a limited trade deal will be on the Johnson’s agenda.

“A trade deal, even if it is limited in scope and ambition, needs to be negotiated. There is no time for trade negotiations to happen before the UK PM’s visit. Johnson can, at most, convey his country’s willingness to work on a bilateral trade deal in the future and at most some preparatory steps may be announced,” another source said.

The UK is India’s fourteenth largest trading partner accounting for $8.7 billion of exports and $6.7 billion of imports in 2020-21. Both India and the UK have acknowledged that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) would now be smoother as Britain has now exited the European Union and other EU members will not have to be taken into consideration.

Interim pact proposed

In February, Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, in an in-person meeting with UK Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss, proposed an interim pact on a preferential basis based where both sides would reduce or remove tariffs on select items.

While no decision was taken on the proposed trade pact at the meet, both launched an ‘enhanced trade partnership’ which might be taken forward during the PM’s visit.

Addressing non-tariff barriers is expected to be high on the UK’s list of priorities and an agreement may be signed when Johnson visits.

“Both sides may identify non-tariff barriers that they face in carrying out trade, like stringent quality standards, and attempts may be made to ease these,” the source said.

Services is another area where there may be some arrangements during the visit as both India and the UK are interested in giving the services sector a boost.

Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.