British PM to visit India, bilateral trade in focus

The Dollar Business Bureau

British Prime Minister Theresa May will begin her first bilateral visit to India next month as London looks to bolster trade and economic ties with New Delhi in the aftermath of recently-concluded Brexit referendum.

May will lead a delegation of small and medium-sized businesses on her three-day visit to India, during which the business delegates will hold conversations with their potential Indian counterparts and sign a number of bilateral commercial deals.

Her visit to India also marks her very first trip to a non-European country. Her meetings with the Indian Prime Minister will be focused on engaging India in its economic and trade ambitions. The two prime ministers will together inaugurate a tech summit in New Delhi.

"As we embark on the trade mission to India we will send the message that the UK will be the most passionate, most consistent, and most convincing advocate for free trade," May said.

After Britain voted to exit the EU bloc, many countries have disagreed to negotiate a new deal with it until it has actually left the group. The trade negotiations for the EU and Britain will be executed by the European Commission.

Diverting from the past trends of focusing on big businesses, May said she would adopt a new approach and will engage small and medium companies in the country’s future trade missions.

Among the SME companies will be a Wales-based cyber security company called Geolang, southeast England-based biomass energy company Torftech and Cambridge-based high-tech wireless street lighting systems firm Telensa.

Merchandise trade between India and the United Kingdom during 2014-15 stood at $14.33 billion, registering a negative growth of 9.39% against 2013-14.

India exports garments and textiles, machinery and instruments, petroleum products, footwear and leather, metals, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, transport equipment and parts, spices, drugs & pharmaceuticals and marine products to the UK.

India imports machinery and equipment, ores and metal scraps, precious and semiprecious stones, silver, metals, aircrafts parts, beverages and spirits, machinery, engineering goods, and other professional instruments other than electronics, non-ferrous metals and chemicals from Britain.