{"id":288225,"date":"2025-07-24T15:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288225\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:27:10","slug":"starmer-and-modi-hail-historic-day-as-uk-india-trade-deal-is-signed-trade-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288225\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer and Modi hail \u2018historic day\u2019 as UK-India trade deal is signed | Trade policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi<\/a> have hailed a \u201chistoric day\u201d as they signed a free trade agreement between the UK and India.<\/p>\n

The two leaders said the trade deal, which is projected to boost the UK economy by \u00a34.8bn a year and bring in \u00a36bn of investment by British and Indian businesses, marked a \u201cstep-change\u201d in relations between their countries.<\/p>\n

Modi and Starmer addressed cameras at Chequers, the prime minister\u2019s country house near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, after signing the deal, which was finalised in May following nearly three and a half years of negotiations<\/a>. Modi, speaking via a translator, described the UK and India as \u201cnatural partners\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agreement will result in average tariffs on UK goods being cut from 15% to 3%, with whisky tariffs halved initially and reduced further over the next few years. It still needs to be ratified by the British and Indian parliaments, a process that will take several months.<\/p>\n

Critics have argued that the deal does not offer enough for the UK\u2019s financial and legal services industries and have raised questions over India\u2019s human rights and environmental record. The London Mining Network said in a statement that the deal \u201clacks robust climate safeguards\u201d, particularly around coal extraction in India.<\/p>\n

Modi described the UK and India as \u2018natural partners\u2019. Photograph: Kin Cheung\/PA<\/p>\n

Negotiations continue over a bilateral investment treaty, which would benefit the City of London, but UK ministers and officials are understood to believe<\/a> it is unlikely that one will be agreed.<\/p>\n

The two governments also continue to discuss the UK\u2019s plans for a carbon border tax, which India strongly opposes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Modi is in the UK for meetings with Starmer and King Charles, and is expected to attend a business reception on Thursday evening. The prime minister has been urged to raise the case of Jagtar Singh Johal<\/a>, a Sikh activist from Dumbarton who has been detained in India for eight years.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Get the day\u2019s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, has been held in India since his arrest in 2017. Photograph: Family handout\/PA<\/p>\n

Johal was arrested in connection with terror-related offences while in India for his wedding in 2017, and has been held since despite having been cleared<\/a> of one of the nine cases against him this year. He says he was tortured in the early days of his detention and forced to make a confession.<\/p>\n

Ian Murray, the Scotland<\/a> secretary, said the case was \u201cright at the top of the agenda\u201d. He told BBC Radio Scotland on Thursday: \u201cThe government are doing all we possibly can to get this resolved. There was a recent meeting, just at the start of June, between the foreign secretary and his counterpart in India.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johal\u2019s brother Gurpreet Singh Johal said before Modi\u2019s visit that he was \u201cputting my faith in the prime minister to get this done and bring Jagtar home. He was rightly critical of the previous government\u2019s failure, and he recognised that Jagtar is arbitrarily detained \u2026 I\u2019ve grown very tired of fine words and weak excuses for a lack of action, while my brother grows old in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said the free trade agreement with India had only been made possible \u201cbecause of Brexit delivered by the Conservatives\u201d. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, was critical of the deal when it was announced in May.<\/p>\n

The Confederation of British Industry said the agreement \u201csends a powerful signal that the UK is open for business and remains resolute in its commitment to free and fair trade\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi have hailed a \u201chistoric day\u201d as they signed a free trade agreement between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-288225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114908918131713321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}