UK-India trade talks – opportunities and challenges

The signing of the UK-India trade deal keeps the UK's food standards in place and protects our most sensitive farming sectors. However, the NFU warns government that the growing access from multiple deals “cannot be overlooked.”

Through strong NFU lobbying, the current level of tariffs for imports of sugar, chicken, eggs and pork have been maintained. Yet, frustratingly, dairy markets have been liberalised despite our dairy farmers not seeing any greater access for British cheeses and dairy products into the Indian market.

Read our response in full.

The NFU has welcomed the conclusion of the UK’s trade deal with India saying that ministers have “clearly listened” to concerns around upholding the UK’s production standards and the importance of safeguarding our most sensitive farming sectors.

Within agri-food, the government has secured tariff reductions for whisky and gin, salmon, chocolate, biscuits and lamb – with the latter of these a key ask of the NFU.

Read our response in full.

Minister for Commerce and Industry of India Shri Piyush Goyal and Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade of the United Kingdom Jonathan Reynolds met in Dehli to relaunch the Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Read the joint statement in full.

Sir Keir Starmer met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit.

The leaders committed to relaunching trade negotiations between the UK and India in the new year.

Read the Prime Minister’s statement in full.

The Labour Government take office, with early engagement between the Prime Ministers of the UK and India. Both sides discussed the Free Trade Agreement with Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying he stands ready to conclude a deal which works for both sides. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously said that he wishes to conclude a deal with the UK in the first 100 days of office.

Sector opportunities

Dairy

The UK exported around £2.7 million of dairy products to India last year. However, tariffs on UK dairy exports to India are currently high, exceeding 30%, and non-tariff barriers also pose difficulties for exporters. An ambitious trade deal, which delivers balanced yet commercially meaningful benefits for UK agriculture, should reduce these tariffs and non-tariff barriers and facilitate greater exports of UK dairy products to India, including high quality, authentic and unique British cheeses. Though the industry will still need to navigate the patchy, cold chain infrastructure that exists in India to really maximise the openings.

Lamb

Lamb is eaten by all religions in India, and while it may make sense to send halal meat to cater for all tastes, there could also be opportunities for non-halal British lamb exports around multiple religious festivals.

Fruit and vegetables

Exports of less perishable fruits, particularly apples, have the potential to be highly successful in India as the regions outside northern India rely on apple imports throughout the year to meet consumer demand. India only has a few northern hemisphere suppliers, of which Turkey and the US are the largest, but the UK could have the opportunity to displace existing imports with British grown apples overtaking competitors who, like the UK, currently face high tariffs of 50%.

Beef

While Muslims and Christians make up only 16% of the Indian population, that’s still a target audience of 220m people for beef. India currently bans the import of any beef to its country, and this is unlikely to change in any trade deal. However, the UK has an export certificate in place to supply India bovine genetics and semen. 

Pork

Opportunities for pork exist in the growing tourism and foodservice sector. India’s attempts to modernise and commercialise its pig farms could offer an opening for the pig sector due to the UK’s reputation for genetics and animal health, not to mention expertise in breeding.

Challenges and barriers

While the potential of the Indian market is clear, there are also a wide range of challenges specific to the country.

There are specific issues for sugar and eggs. In December 2021, a WTO (World Trade Organisation) panel ruled that the Indian sugar regime breaches its rules on agricultural support, export subsidies and notification of subsidies to the WTO. This is an ongoing situation that amounts to a distortion of the world sugar market. The NFU has been clear that the UK Government should not offer any access to our prized sugar market in light of these illegal export subsidies.

We call upon the government to uphold its own commitment not to undercut British farmers in trade deals. In practice, this means the government should not allow goods produced to lower animal welfare and environmental standards preferential access to our domestic market. Given that egg production in India widely uses conventional cages, which have been banned in the UK since 2012, we believe that eggs and egg products should be excluded from this trade deal.

NFU Sugar Board chair Michael Sly and NFU sugar commercial and market insights manager Arthur Marshall met with officials in Downing Street, where they were able to lay out NFU Sugar’s concerns directly to government.

The concern

India is a major global sugar producer, regularly in the top one or two in the world. In 2021/22 it exported a record amount, supported by an extensive programme of subsidies, price guarantees and other direct support.

Despite a WTO (World Trade Organisation) ruling in 2021 that the Indian sugar regime was illegal, without the teeth to enforce it, the ruling has had no impact on India’s sugar sector policies.

Concessions on sugar within an FTA with India would therefore require UK sugar beet growers to compete with a production system that is propped up by an extensive, and illegal, government subsidy regime.

NFU Sugar’s position

“The UK homegrown sugar industry is a true British success story and is one of the most efficient sugar producers in the world,” says NFU Sugar Board chair, Michael Sly. “But British growers cannot be expected to go toe-to-toe against imports from countries that use illegal subsidies to gain an unfair competitive advantage over them.”

The only way to effectively limit the exposure of UK sugar beet growers to Indian sugar is to refuse to grant bilateral preferences under the FTA.

Concessions on sugar within an FTA with India would not only risk considerable undue economic harm to the homegrown sugar sector but, with India’s sugar subsidy regime in breach of international trade law, also compromise the UK Government’s own commitment to champion global rules-based trade.

India deal is not so sweet

24 Jul ‘23Posted on 24 July 2023

Negotiations formally launched between the UK and India to establish an FTA with the objective by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to conclude by Diwali.

The government ran a 14-week consultation on future free trade with India, which closed on 31 August 2021.

The UK government is seeking a deal that removes or reduces tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment between the UK and India.

You can read our response in full at: NFU consultation response on UK-India trade deal.

However, India is among the top 10 agricultural exporters globally. This includes commodities such as:

• eggs
• horticulture products
• sugar.

India already enjoys preferential access to the UK market via the GSP (Generalised Scheme of Preference) for certain key commodities.

Any agreement must ensure our farmers and growers are not undercut by allowing in agri-food imports that would be illegal to produce domestically.

Trade barriers

Currently, UK businesses are met with considerable trade barriers when exporting to India – both tariffs and non-tariff barriers.

These barriers reduce UK business’ ability to trade into the market efficiently.

We have asked, therefore, that in the UK-India FTA, efforts should be made to not only liberalise the Indian market but also reduce the non-tariff barriers to trade for UK business.

Market development

To make the most of the opportunity presented by the Indian market, the government must be prepared to invest in market promotion and development.