India FTA can be achieved this year, but no more visa offers: UK trade minister
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The official UK-India Young Professionals Scheme, which was officially launched earlier this month, offers 3,000 visas a year to graduates aged 18 to 30 to live and work in any country for up to two years. This barrier is seen as being overcome.
“We have to make sure that the trade agreement we sign is country-specific. The kind of mobility I can offer to a country like Australia is the kind of mobility I can offer. There’s nothing I can do with a country like India, which has many times the population,” said Bedenwick.
“And what people in the UK want to do when they travel to Australia is probably a bit different to what they want to do when they go to India and vice versa,” he told The Times.
Describing the previous Tory government’s approach to deadline-bound FTA negotiations as “unhelpful”, Badenoch reiterated the government’s push for a more flexible approach under the leadership of Rishi Singh.
The ‘Deal by Diwali’ mantra is one of the things that I have changed since becoming Trade Secretary. I tell people it’s about the deal, not the day. I think having a set day where everything needs to be done is important. A conversation so the other side can run the clock,” he said.
