London: There is a lot of “excitement and a great deal of optimism” among businesses in India and the UK over the trade agreement which comes into force on July 15, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
The minister is in the UK on a three-day visit to review the preparedness of both countries for the implementation of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that was signed last year.
Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of a Business Plenary interaction in London, Goyal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “yahi samay hai, sahi samay hai (This is the time, the right time)” message strongly applies to the India-UK relationship.
“I have come with the largest-ever delegation to leave the shores of India. Nearly 170 businesspersons have accompanied me from across the length and breadth of India, across different sectors – big and small,” said Goyal.
“I had extensive engagements, both with the British businesses and the Indian delegation, and I feel redeemed in some sense that what we have finalised as the India-UK Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement is a partnership that is good for both countries, is full of potential, goes beyond the typical trade in goods and services,” he said.
Goyal said the agreement is “very comprehensive”, and it will hopefully open the floodgates to not only greater trade, greater business but also strengthening the UK-India partnership.
Referring to his call to businesses on both sides to “seize the moment”, he added: “Very often in life, there is a moment in time that comes where there is some opportunity right in front of your eyes. At that point of time, if you miss out, probably the opportunity may never come again.
“As Prime Minister Modi said, yahi samay hai, sahi samay hai. And I think for the UK-India partnership, there can be no better comment than what Prime Minister Modi said; this is the moment, this is the right moment,” he said.
On the ongoing Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) discussions with the US, Goyal said there is broad agreement on most aspects of a deal and reiterated that India awaits reassurances on “comparative advantage”.
“The only open issue that really is significant is how India will be provided with the comparative advantage over the other competing countries in the neighbourhood, ASEAN, which the United States team has assured to look into and find a solution,” he said.
