Kemi Badenoch says post-Brexit trade deal with India WILL be signed by end of this month – but admits Britain ‘may not get everything’ in agreement despite hopes of huge boost for whisky industry
- Kemi Badenoch signals Britain is on course for trade deal with India this month
- International Trade Secretary says agreement might not see UK ‘get everything’
- Ex-PM Boris Johnson had set a deadline of Diwali – on 24th October – for deal
International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch today signalled Britain was still on track to sign a post-Brexit trade deal with India by the end of this month.
The Cabinet minister insisted a deadline to complete an agreement by the Diwali festival on 24th October was being stuck to by Prime Minister Liz Truss.
But Ms Badenoch admitted the final weeks of negotiations on a deal with India might not see Britain ‘get everything’ it wants – amid claims New Delhi is playing hardball in talks.
Earlier this year, Ms Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson and Indian PM Narendra Modi set the Diwali deadline for getting a trade deal over the line.
The UK’s dominant services sector has expressed fears it could lose out amid the last-ditch scramble to meet that target – despite hopes of a big win for Britain’s whisky industry through the slashing of tariffs under the agreement.
A row over British steel products has also erupted during the final weeks of talks.
Kemi Badenoch admitted the final weeks of negotiations on a trade deal with India might not see Britain ‘get everything’ it wants
Boris Johnson and Indian PM Narendra Modi set the Diwali deadline for getting a trade deal over the line
There are hopes of a big win for Britain’s whisky industry through the slashing of tariffs under the agreement
Speaking at a fringe event at the Tory conference this morning, Ms Badenoch stressed the Government was pushing for a ‘comprehensive’ agreement with India that was ‘right for both countries.
She also pushed back at suggestions trade negotiators were working to an ‘arbitrary’ deadline in trying to complete a deal.
‘We want something comprehensive, but it has to be right for both countries,’ she told the event in Birmingham hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank.
‘The Prime Minister has a deadline, which the previous Prime Minister had – that was quite a long deadline.
‘It’s not arbitrary, it wasn’t set last week – do it by October – it was set quite a while ago.
‘But doing a trade deal is not a simple and easy thing. So what we want to do is something that lifts both countries.’
The International Trade Secretary warned that a UK-India deal might not include ‘everything’ that British firms are hoping for.
But Ms Badenoch suggested the agreement could be enhanced at a later date.
‘It may not be everything that the services sector wants,’ she added.
‘We may not get everything, we’re not doing a unilateral free-for-all deal.
‘But just because we have a free trade agreement it doesn’t mean we can’t do even more later, so that’s the message I would send to the services sector.
‘There’s a lot of good stuff I think we can get, but the focus has to be on a deal that is good for the UK and India – not any specific, particular sector alone – it’s got to be a good deal for the country in the round.’
Ms Badenoch also hit back at those MPs who have been demanding greater scrutiny of post-Brexit trade deals being negotiated by the Government.
She warned the House of Commons to leave talks to experts in her Department for International Trade.
‘In terms of Parliament debating the deals, the fact of the matter is trade deals are done between governments, not between legislatures,’ she said.
‘If we are negotiating, it’s not up to every individual MP to get involved with the negotiation.
‘The bill is there with the detail and that is when a debate can happen, when we have something that is agreed.
‘But we cannot have 650 legislators all getting involved in a trade deal, that’s just not how it works.’
She added: ‘Most of us – I would even include myself as someone who’s only been the Trade Secretary for less than a month – most of us don’t actually know that much about trade.
‘There are trade experts, the Department is full of them, people who have been doing this all their lives professionally.
‘The job of legislators is to look at legislation, not to negotiate trade deals.’
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