Not working to Diwali deadline for India trade pact, says U.K. trade minister

‘We are close. We’re still working on a deal. One of the things that has changed is that we are no longer working to the Diwali deadline,’ said U.K. Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch

The free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with India are no longer working towards a Diwali deadline, U.K. Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has confirmed.

During a visit to a Scotch whisky distillery on October 13, the Cabinet minister in charge of the FTA negotiations at the Department for International Trade (DIT) said the deal being lined up with India would bring great wins for the industry as the steep tariffs of up to 150% are set to be slashed.

However, while the negotiations are progressing well, signing a draft agreement by October 24 is no longer the goal.

"We are close. We're still working on a deal. One of the things that has changed is that we are no longer working to the Diwali deadline,” Ms. Badenoch told the BBC.

“We've closed a lot of chapters (the sections for the negotiating text). The negotiations are progressing well. But we want to focus on the quality of the deal rather than the speed of the deal. Given the changes that have taken place – not just in government but the mourning period (for the Queen) and so on, it makes sense for us to focus on the deal rather than the day," she said.

This marks the first official confirmation that both sides are no longer considering Diwali as the closing date for the majority of the deal, with the DIT previously only saying that the government “won’t sacrifice quality for speed”.

The Diwali timeline had been announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his India visit in April and it was widely expected that it would prove a tight deadline given the political upheaval that followed in the U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s recent comments raising concerns over the prospect of visa concessions for India as part of an FTA were also seen as throwing the talks off-track.