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Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, is visiting India where she will be holding talks on the post-Brexit trade deal being negotiated. Kalyeena Makortoff has more on this on her business live blog. She reports:
Badenoch is heading to Jaipur, where G20 trade and investment ministers will be gathering for talks on Thursday and Friday. But reports from the FT (£) and BBC suggest that the UK trade minister will use it as an opportunity to try iron out “some quite significant issues” to the trade deal, which – if its successful – would be a significant feather in Tory ministers’ caps post-Brexit
It is hoped that an agreement could slash costly tariffs on UK exports, including cars and whisky. Meanwhile, India is looking for a deal that would help improve access for its own manufactured goods and services, as well as work visas.
It depends what else is in the pot … You wouldn’t rule it out because you might have other interests that made that sensible. There are goods and services that we want to export to India that could create huge wealth in the UK if we got the chance to do that.
You’ve got to look at these things in the round. You can’t just say, where do we stand on visas without, for example, financial services. Or, for example, whisky exports. What’s in the pot in the round? Take a view of that and ask, ‘Is this deal in the interests of the UK?’ If it is, great. If it’s not, then don’t sign it for the sake of signing one. That’s the principle that should inform trade deals with major economies.
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