UK and India have struck trade deal, Modi says

https://www.ft.com/content/8ffeea3a-cb69-4290-8910-cbb0bba7e907

by DekiTree

27 comments

  1. This, soon Canada and the rumours of a good one with the EU will be fantastic

  2. Devils in the details. Could be a big boost could be a rounding error. I reserve the right to be impressed.

  3. We need to see the deal really before any comments, I do hope they have done a good job.

  4. I hope to be impressed, but prepare to be disappointed.

    As is the UK way.

  5. >The deal does not include any change in immigration policy, including towards Indian students studying in the UK, the British government said.

  6. This is great news. India is the 4th biggest economy in the world and might start rivaling China some day

  7. Starmer caved on India’s demands for them to not pay National Insurance according to Modi’s latest tweet.

    Indian workers being transferred by their employer to work in the UK will not have to pay National Insurance.

    After thresholds, this makes it around 20% cheaper for an Indian firm to hire an Indian than it does to hire a Brit.

  8. We get British pounds sent to India , you get unlimited discount labor. – Modi.

  9. Alt link from Reuters: [https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-uk-conclude-talks-over-free-trade-pact-pm-modi-says-2025-05-06/](https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-uk-conclude-talks-over-free-trade-pact-pm-modi-says-2025-05-06/)

    An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-uk-conclude-talks-over-free-trade-pact-pm-modi-says-2025-05-06/) or [here](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-uk-conclude-talks-over-free-trade-pact-pm-modi-says-2025-05-06/) to bypass the paywall.

  10. EU have been trying to negotiate with India since 2007 – glad we could wrap this up

  11. Indian firms sending staff to the UK pay no National Insurance on those assignees.

    Once thresholds apply, hiring an Indian is about 20% cheaper than hiring a Brit: Brits pay 8% employee NI and firms pay 15% employer NI

  13. If you work in an industry with a high proportion of Indian workers (e.g., I.T.) then this is very, very bad for you

  14. Finally all that work the Jeremy, James and Richard did has paid off.

  15. I’d much rather have tandoori chicken than chlorinated chicken

  17. So…India can sell to us easier…but what do we get in return? India ain’t a rich country.

    They’re hardly going to be paying top dollar for our service offerings.

    They can’t afford our stuff.

  18. Devil is the detail; let’s see how it plays out. The NI exemption is concerning but if it’s only for up to 6 months it might not be as consequential as others are stating.

    Remeber there is also visa costs to circulate workers and anyone who’s worked on projects can be aware of how long they take sometimes.

  19. I hope they made it easier for indian immigrants to change employers in this case. Indentured roles has given a significant downward pressure on pay. And the cost to employers should not be lower for using foreign labour. If the NI scrap is employees only, that would be a good thing for leverage. But scrapping employers NI would be more harmful than good.

  20. Great – even more reason for UK business to off shore IT jobs. No tax or NI.

  21. >”As part of the agreement, the UK and India will strike a double contribution convention under which Indian workers temporarily living in the UK will not have to pay national insurance contributions for three years.”

    Great; so at a time when Labour increases the NI burden on British employers they remove on foreign workers who will probably remit most of their wages abroad rather than spend it locally.

    Starmer’s outdone himself with this one.

  22. Dropping tariffs on our cars from 100% to 10% that is a massive win. Might actually save Jaguar Land Rover lol

  23. Ok so we’ve given away our high paid IT professional base, for more whiskey sales. Nice.

  24. It does disappoint me a bit we don’t hear much about the UK’s trade deals with other countries post-Brexit. It’s almost like the media *want* to make us think it’s all doom and gloom.

    We now have free trade deals with –

    Albania

    The “Andean Countries” (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru)

    Australia

    Cameroon

    Canada

    “CARIFORUM” (Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago)

    Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama)

    Chile

    “Eastern & Southern Africa” (Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zimbabwe)

    Egypt

    The EU (27 members, independently – Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden)

    Faroe Islands

    Georgia

    Ghana

    Iceland

    Lichtenstein

    Norway

    Israel

    Ivory Coast

    Japan

    Jordan

    Kenya

    Kosovo

    Lebanon

    Switzerland

    Mexico

    Moldova

    Morocco

    New Zealand

    North Macedonia

    “Pacific States” (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands)

    Palestine

    Serbia

    Singapore

    South Korea

    “Southern Africa Customs Union and Mozambique” (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa)

    Tunisia

    Turkey

    Ukraine

    Vietnam

    We’re also in the “Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership” which includes some of the above.

    We’re negotiating agreements at present with –

    Algeria

    Bosnia

    Canada (a wider deal than the one we already have)

    Greenland

    “Gulf Cooperation Council” (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE)

    India (Agreed in principle, as per the thread topic)

    Israel

    Maldives

    Montenegro

    Switzerland (independent of the one alongside Lichtenstein as above)

    Thailand

    Turkey

    The United States

    I’d say we’re doing pretty bloody well!

  25. For people who are “concerned” about the immigration part of this deal let me explain please:

    The article states that indians who work for indian companies that come over here to work for those same companies will be NI exempt for 3 years.

    Lets break this down this means that they already have a job with the indian company, they will be on an ICT which is Inter-Company Transfer Visa that is good for 3 years. As part of this visa process an NHS Surcharge will be paid which means they will be paying for the use of the NHS upfront. Secondly there is no path to ILR or Citizenship with an ICT, they would have to then switch to a critical skills work visa, in which case the salary restrictions are higher, and they would be paying NI on top of NHS Surcharge.

    I hope this helps, this is not a “free door” for a bunch more people to just come over. These are company transfers on a temporary basis, and the exemption is so they do not pay into a pot for state pension that they will enver qualify for while also paying into their state pension pot in india.

  26. I think we aren’t seeing the main thing here that is the reason why this deal is good and I’d think should be supported irregardless of ideology. The US is in a trade war with China which just happens to be where we import a large bulk of our affordable goods from and the cost of energy is skyrocketing. In India the cost of energy is way lower and they produce pretty much the same things as China for the same price, so lets not lean so heavily on China for certain things if we can get them from our old Commonwealth buddies especially in a time when the world is getting more uncertain it wouldn’t kill economically or politically to maintain a good relationship with these key strategic allies (remember lots of our raw resources and key strategic resources also come from India so its vital we utilise this strategic partner).

  27. India needs to get its population to resources ratio sorted out. It doesn’t invest enough in its own people, neither does UK so maybe that would be a place for both countries to start. Not leeching off other places like there’s no shame in it.

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