UK trade deals with India, Gulf are ‘the priority’: business minister

LONDON — The U.K.’s business minister said Monday that securing trade deals with India and Gulf nations remains “the priority” for the Labour government, with talks between Britain and the Gulf Corporation Council expected to resume as soon as next week.

U.K. Business and Trade Minister Jonathan Reynolds told CNBC that negotiations with a six-strong group of Gulf countries would reconvene “very soon — maybe as soon as next week,” while talks with India also remain a priority.

“The Gulf and India are the priority,” Reynolds said at the U.K.’s International Investment Summit at London’s Guildhall. “I think there are clear economic and commercial reasons why we should pursue those.”

U.K. free trade deals were touted as a key benefit of Brexit, with former Prime Minister and Brexiteer Boris Johnson vowing to secure one with India “by Diwali” 2022. But they have so far proven elusive. Deals with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore are among the few that have been agreed so far.

Shortly after taking office in July, Reynolds committed to continuing the work of the former Conservative government in this regard, and last month he visited the Gulf for initial talks with the GCC, whose members include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The trade minister has also previously said that the government was pursuing trade talks with Israel, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.

Reynolds would not commit on Monday to a time frame for the deals, saying the government’s initial role was to “re-establish the authority for those trade talks” and expand on the work of his predecessors.

“When people say a deal is half done, obviously the easy bits are done first, so it’s not necessarily an easy thing to explain the timescale on,” he said.

However, he insisted that the deals were critical to the U.K., both economically and diplomatically.

“It’s important to recognize, whilst we don’t do foreign policy through trade deals, British engagement commercially – country to country, business to business – is in itself a good thing,” he said.

“And even where those countries are not democracies like ours, it’s a very positive relationship to encourage. It’s not just commercial in terms of the benefits that come from those,” Reynolds added.

U.K.-India trade talks, now entering their 15th round, could also resume as soon as this month, local media cited India’s Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal as saying last month.

Speaking to CNBC’s Tanvir Gill in September, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that both parties were keen to conclude a deal soon but that it would happen “systematically.”

“A trade deal is never done with a gun on the head, either to U.K. or to India,” Goyal said.

“We have to protect national interests and sensitivities on both sides, and therefore treaties have to be carefully calibrated to make them fair, equitable, balanced, meeting the interests of both nations, recognizing the future different positions that each partner will have in the future.”