Tag: TRADE

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US emerges as India’s biggest trading partner

During 2022-23, India’s two-way commerce with China declined by about 1.5 per cent to $113.83 billion as against $115.42 billion in 2021-22…reports Asian Lite News

The US has emerged as India’s biggest trading partner in 2022-23 on account of increasing economic ties between the two countries.

According to the provisional data of the Commerce Ministry, the bilateral trade between India and the US has increased by 7.65 per cent to $128.55 billion in 2022-23 as against $119.5 billion in 2021-22. It was $80.51 billion in 2020-21.

Exports to the US rose by 2.81 per cent to $78.31 billion in 2022-23 as against $76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports grew by about 16 per cent to $50.24 billion, the data showed.

During 2022-23, India’s two-way commerce with China declined by about 1.5 per cent to $113.83 billion as against $115.42 billion in 2021-22.

Beijing: Photo taken on May 21, 2020 shows red flags on the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Cai Yang/IANS)

Exports to China dipped by about 28 per cent to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose by 4.16 per cent to $98.51 billion in the last fiscal. Trade gap widened to $83.2 billion in the last fiscal as against $72.91 billion in 2021-22.

Experts believe that the trend of increasing bilateral trade with the US will continue in the coming years also as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in further strengthening the economic ties.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) president A Sakthivel said increasing exports of goods such as pharmaceutical, gems and jewellery were helping India to push its shipments to America. “The trend of increasing trade with the US will continue in the coming months also,” he said.

FIEO vice-president Khalid Khan said, “India is emerging as a trusted trading partner and global firms are reducing their dependence on China for their supplies and are diversifying business into other countries like India.”

Rakesh Mohan Joshi, director of the Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM), Bangalore, said that India provides huge trade opportunities for the US as India is the world’s third largest consumer market and the fastest growing market economy.

Interestingly, America is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. In 2022-23, India had a trade surplus of $28 billion with the US.

The data showed that China was India’s top trading partner since 2013-14 till 2017-18 and also in 2020-21. Before China, the UAE was the country’s largest trading partner.

In 2022-23, the UAE with $76.16 billion, was the third largest trading partner of India. It was followed by Saudi Arabia ($52.72 billion), and Singapore (USD 35.55 billion).

Last year, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal had exuded confidence that  the India-US bilateral trade in goods and services will reach USD 500-600 billion by 2030 as their relation continues to strengthen.

On whether India will join the trade pillar of 14-member Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), Goyal said it would depend on what India will get in return.

While 13 member countries have joined all four subjects  — trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy– under IPEF, India has opted out of the trade pillar as of now. It has joined the other three subjects.

“With regard to joining the trade pillar of IPEF, India decides its strategy on its own terms…If you want binding commitments (from India) on different subjects, tell me what I am getting in return. It has to be good for my people and my country. What you give me in return will determine whether I will join the trade pillar. You negotiate and if we see some advantage, then we will join.

“India and the US relations are continuously improving and strengthening and today we have a bilateral trade of about USD 175 billion (exports and imports of goods and services). I believe that in the coming 7-8 years , it will be USD 500-600 billion by 2030, when our exports in goods and services will be USD 2 trillion each,” Goyal said.

On a free trade agreement with the US, the minister said America is not looking for a new trade pact with any country.

The US is looking at India as its friend and a trusted partner, he added. The IPEF was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23 in Tokyo.

The 14 IPEF partners represent 40 per cent of the global GDP and 28 per cent of global goods and services trade. The members include the US, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

On trade pacts, he said the government conducts comprehensive consultation with all the stakeholders before taking a call on these agreements.

“We do not do FTAs for the sake of FTA,” he said, adding trade pacts signed between 2008 and 2011 are “unbalanced and unfair”.

Further, on assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, he exuded confidence that the BJP would form the government in both states with full majority.

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-Top News India News UK News

Carbon tax stalls UK free trade talks with India

India has opposed measures such as CBAM and has called it “discriminatory” in a letter to the WTO…reports Asian Lite News

The proposed tax on carbon-intensive imports by the UK may prove to be a major stumbling block in the free trade talks with India.

The trade representatives of the two countries are scheduled to meet in London on April 24.

But the talks are gradually moving towards regulatory standards such as the carbon tax from tariff reductions that could hamper the negotiations.

Initial indications are that the UK is considering a carbon tax similar to the EU, which proposes to levy steep tariffs on imports with higher carbon footprints.

An EU-style carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is expected to dent India’s metal exports to the UK even if the two countries agree on significant tariff concessions, analysts said. India and the UK have completed six rounds of negotiations and are expected to sign the agreement shortly.

Commerce ministry officials said the trade negotiations go haywire when such new regulations are introduced as talks are held based on several studies on the likely impact of different tariff measures. Such non-tariff measures take the trade talks off the tangent.

The UK has initiated consultations to levy the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from 2026, the same year as the EU. The objective is to prevent the shift of manufacturing to countries with lower or no carbon tax.

The UK will also introduce Mandatory Product Standards (MPS) by 2027 to prohibit the import of products with high emission intensity.

“The CBAM will result in the UK gradually taxing all imports at rates much higher than its current import tariff rates. The UK’s average tariff rates are less than 2 per cent. These may become zero post-India-UK FTA. But Indian exports will still need to pay carbon tax at much higher rates,” Ajay Srivastava, co-founder of Global Trade Research Initiative, said.

India has opposed measures such as CBAM and has called it “discriminatory” in a letter to the WTO.

Biswajit Dhar, trade economist, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said: “The trade talks are veering towards regulatory standards which have significant larger implications and needs to be studied before moving towards any kind of agreement.”

“There are several contentious issues in these standards relating to environment, labour, IPR, data protection among others, which would require changes in Indian laws if we were to accept the demands of the UK and the EU,” he said.

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-Top News Canada

Canadian international trade decreases in February

economy.

In real, or volume terms, total imports were down 0.8 percent…reports Asian Lite News

Following strong increases in January, Canadian merchandise exports and imports decreased in February, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

According to the national statistical agency, after increasing 3.5 percent in January, total exports fell 2.4 percent to 65 billion Canadian dollars (48.1 billion U.S. dollars) in February. In real, or volume terms, total exports decreased 0.9 percent, following a 4.8 percent increase in January.

After increasing 3.6 percent in January, total imports fell 1.3 percent to 64.6 billion Canadian dollars (47.8 billion U.S. dollars) in February. In real, or volume terms, total imports were down 0.8 percent.

In February, monthly service exports were down 1.3 percent to 14 billion Canadian dollars (10.4 billion U.S. dollars). Meanwhile, service imports increased 0.4 percent to 16.2 billion Canadian dollars (12 billion U.S. dollars), the agency said.

When international trade in goods and services were combined, exports decreased 2.2 percent to 79 billion Canadian dollars (58.5 billion U.S. dollars) in February, while imports were down 1 percent to 80.8 billion Canadian dollars (59.8 billion U.S. dollars).

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-Top News EU News

Highest-ever EU trade deficit recorded in 2022

The lowest share of intra-EU exports was reported in Cyprus (26 per cent of its total exports)…reports Asian Lite News

In 2022, the EU trade in goods balance registered a large deficit of Euro 432 billion, reaching its lowest level since the start of the time series in 2002.

The deficit was due, in particular, to a steep rise in the value of energy imports, which started towards the end of 2021 and continued through most of 2022, according to Eurostat. Also in 2022, driven by increasing prices, extra-EU imports (+41 per cent) and exports (+18 per cent) reached their highest year-on-year growth rates recorded over the last ten years.

Data show that the EU’s internal market takes centre stage in EU countries’ trade of goods, although the proportion of intra-EU and extra-EU flows in total trade in goods varied considerably, reflecting, to some degree, historical ties and geographical location.

Among the EU members, the highest share of intra-EU imports was recorded in Luxembourg (90 per cent of its total imports), while the highest share of intra-EU exports was recorded in Czechia (82 per cent of its total exports).

On the other hand, the lowest share of intra-EU imports was recorded in Ireland (35 per cent of its total imports), which is mainly because its primary trade partner is the United Kingdom. Additionally, the lowest share of intra-EU exports was reported in Cyprus (26 per cent of its total exports).

In 2022, the Netherlands imported a large share of goods from extra-EU countries (only 39 per cent of its imports were intra-EU) and exported them within the EU (71 per cent of its exports were intra-EU). (ANI/WAM)

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-Top News India News

Sunak wins post-Brexit trade vote  

Despite the opposition, Sunak won the vote by 515 to 29, suggesting that several in his Conservative Party had abstained on the vote…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak won the backing of parliament on Wednesday for a key element of a reworked post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland despite a lack of support from the province’s biggest unionist party and some of his lawmakers.

Sunak has tried to end years of wrangling over Brexit by revisiting one of the trickiest parts of the negotiations – to ensure smooth trade to Northern Ireland without creating a hard border with Britain or with European Union-member Ireland.

He agreed with the EU to introduce the “Stormont brake”, aimed at offering Northern Ireland more control over whether to accept any new EU laws, as part of the so-called Windsor Framework of measures.

But in Wednesday’s vote in the lower house of parliament, those he most wanted to win over – Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Conservative eurosceptics in the European Research Group (ERG) and his two predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – said they would rebel.

Despite the opposition, Sunak won the vote by 515 to 29, suggesting that several in his Conservative Party had abstained on the vote.

Sunak and his ministers had urged lawmakers to support the brake.

“The Stormont brake is at the heart of the (Windsor) Framework,” Northern Ireland minister Chris Heaton-Harris told parliament ahead of the vote. “It restores practical sovereignty for the United Kingdom as a whole and the people of northern Ireland in particular.” The brake enables Britain to prevent new EU laws applying to goods in Northern Ireland if asked to do so by a third of lawmakers in the province’s devolved legislature.

The ERG has described the measure as “practically useless” and the DUP complains that it does not apply to existing EU law.

The new agreement was hammered out by Sunak, in office since October, after Johnson’s former government threatened to renege on the original deal it had struck with the EU.

A hard border risked endangering the Good Friday Agreement which largely ended three decades of armed conflict in Northern Ireland involving militants seeking a united Ireland, “loyalists” wanting to remain part of the United Kingdom, and British security forces.

The United States has said that any threats to the agreement could hurt the possibility of a US-British trade Sunak hailed securing the deal last month as a “decisive breakthrough”.

But the DUP has said it does little to ease its concerns over the post-Brexit trading arrangements, saying the brake did not deal with the fundamental issue – the imposition of EU law.

The Northern Irish party, at odds with opinion polls suggesting 45% of voters in the province support the framework versus 17% opposed, has said it will keep talking to the government to try to assuage its concerns.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said his party could not return to Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government “at this stage”, a blow to Sunak who wants the assembly to be up and running.

Earlier, the ERG’s chairman Mark Francois told reporters the group had recommended to its members to vote against the government to show their discontent over what he called an “oversold” agreement that was a “brake with no brake pads”.

Johnson, the face of the campaign to leave the EU, and his successor, Truss, both said they would vote against the brake.

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-Top News UK News

Britain and Slovakia step up cooperation in security and trade

The joint declaration also seeks to strengthen economic ties and cooperation on shared priorities including countering illegal migration in Europe and combatting climate change…reports Asian Lite News

The UK and Slovakia have signalled their joint commitment to continue providing military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, in the week that marks 1 year since the start of Putin’s illegal invasion.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly signed a joint declaration in London with his Slovak counterpart, Rastislav Káčer, underlining the European partners’ firm and unwavering rejection of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine.

As NATO allies, the ministers agreed to deepen defence cooperation to protect European security, as well as stepping up work together to counter disinformation and malicious cyber activity.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said, “Since day one of Putin’s illegal invasion, the UK and Slovakia have been staunch allies in our support to Ukraine. As we approach a year since the conflict began, we must maintain our collective resolve and accelerate military support so that Ukraine can win this war.”

The Foreign Secretary welcomed the crucial support Slovakia has already provided to Ukraine, including the provision of military hardware, training to Ukrainian troops and providing shelter to over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

The joint declaration also seeks to strengthen economic ties and cooperation on shared priorities including countering illegal migration in Europe and combatting climate change.

Five years on from of the murder of Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, the Foreign Secretary also expressed his hope that all involved in the horrific attack will be held to account.

2023 marks 30 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Slovakia, which the ministers looked forward to building on as good friends and allies, as well as protecting our shared values of freedom and democracy.

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EU News UK News

UK pays EU £2.3bn after losing trade dispute

EU flags are seen outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, Jan. 6, 2023.(Xinhua/Zheng Huansong/IANS)

This was the interest due on the amounts already paid so in total, the bill was €2,606,609,143.47 – equivalent to more than £2.3bn…reports Asian Lite News

The UK has paid £2.3bn to the EU after losing a long-running trade dispute, with the amount including £1bn in interest.

The government announced the figure in a Written Ministerial Statement before recess next week.

The payments relate to a disagreement over the importation of Chinese textiles and footwear between 2011 and 2017 – when the UK was still part of the European Union.

It was claimed the UK had failed to prevent the undervaluing of these goods, letting criminals evade customs duties by making false claims about the clothes and shoes.

In March last year, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) found against the UK “on most liability points”, according to John Glen, the chief secretary to the Treasury.

It found that more than half of all textiles and footwear imported into the UK from China were below “the lowest acceptable prices”.

The European Commission has been seeking £1.7bn in compensation from the UK to the EU budget.

In June last year, the government made an initial payment of €678,372,885.63 – which it says was the “minimum, indisputable amount the UK considered due at that time in light of the CJEU judgment”.

Last month, the government forked out another €700,351,738.31 – the rest of the headline amount owed, minus the share the UK was due back having been a member state.

But Glen went on to say that a final payment of more than a billion was made this week – of €1,227,884,519.53.

This was the interest due on the amounts already paid so in total, the bill was €2,606,609,143.47 – equivalent to more than £2.3bn.

Glen said: “These are substantial sums but represent the final payments and draw a line under this long-running case, with the UK fulfilling its international obligations.” The UK left the EU customs union in 2021.

Downing Street says payment ‘right thing to do’ Asked if the bill was a good use of taxpayer money, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “It is a legacy issue from our time as part of the EU.

“The payment brings a long-running case to an end and protects UK taxpayers from the risk of further legal proceedings and a potentially bigger bill – so it was the right thing to do. “Now we are out of the EU and can make our own laws.”

Glenn said that taking into account the financial settlement, “the government has determined how an additional £14.6bn of spending by 2024-25 can be allocated to its domestic priorities, rather than be sent in contributions to the EU. This additional spending was already included in the overall spending plans that the government set out at previous spending reviews.”

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-Top News UAE News

UAE foreign trade hits Dh2.23 trillion

The United Arab Emirates has exceeded the Dh2 trillion barrier for the first time in history…reports Asian Lite News

UAE’s foreign trade achieved a historical record reaching more than AED2.2 trillion, a growth of 17 percent, said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed chaired the UAE Cabinet meeting at Qasr Al Watan Abu Dhabi where they reviewed the results of the UAE’s foreign trade in 2022.

“Today, I chaired the UAE cabinet meeting in Abu Dhabi. We expressed our sincere condolences and sympathy to Syrian and Turkish people, as well as the families of victims. Based on the directives of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, all disaster relief work teams have been directed to coordinate with the two brotherly countries to provide all kinds of aid,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

The cabinet also approved the National Framework for Sustainable Development in the UAE.

“The goal is to preserve ecosystems and ensure the sustainability of our natural resources. We also assigned the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment to coordinate government efforts in preparation for hosting COP28,” he added.

The cabinet also approved the executive decisions to establish the National Space Fund, which aims to support the implementation of ambitious national projects in the field of space, support youth capabilities and competencies, and attract the best space companies to the UAE market.

Oil Re-Refinery Plant in UAE

UAE non-oil foreign trade

The non-oil foreign trade of the UAE achieved record growth rates in 2022, reaching AED2 trillion and 233 billion, with a growth rate of 17 percent compared to 2021.

The country has exceeded the AED2 trillion barrier for the first time in history. This achievement comes after the country’s non-oil foreign trade achieved a growth of 12 percent in 2020, recording AED1,496 trillion, and recorded a jump of 28 percent in 2021 to reach AED1,911 trillion.

National Framework for Sustainable Development

The UAE Cabinet approved the National Framework for Sustainable Development, which represents a comprehensive framework for all approved national strategies, policies and agendas concerned with organising environmental work in the country, and maintaining a sustainable environment that supports economic growth. The framework includes 5 main pillars: nature, environmental health, climate change, living organisms, and biosecurity.

The National Framework aims to enhance the quality of life in the country, promote diversification and economic prosperity, preserve the UAE’s ecosystems, sustain its ecological resources and services, and support the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2022, the UAE topped the Yale University’s 2022 Environmental Performance Index in six environmental indicators globally, becoming the first regionally, in the Arab world and in the Gulf.

COP28

As part of the ongoing preparation for the UAE to host the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), the cabinet approved assigning the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment to coordinate with federal and local authorities to prepare the country’s readiness plan for the event, and ensure the participation of federal government entities in organising this global event.

UAE Green Agenda 2030

The Cabinet was briefed on developments in the implementation of the UAE Green Agenda 2030, which aims to achieve the goals of sustainable development, and the objectives of the UAE Centennial 2071.

During the coming period 2023-2030, the UAE will implement initiatives and projects to support the goals of green economy, including increasing GDP by 4 percent to 5 percent by 2030, increasing exports by about AED24 to 25 billion by 2030, and reducing emissions from 430 kilowatt-hours in 2013 to less than 100 kilowatt-hours by 2030.

National Space Fund

During the meeting, a resolution regarding the establishment of the National Space Fund was adopted. The Fund which will be managed and supervised by the UAE Space Agency, aims to build national capabilities and competencies, raise the economic contribution to diversifying the national economy, and consolidate the UAE’s position in the space sector.

The Fund is set to develop the infrastructure supporting the space industry, and create an appropriate environment to attract startup companies in space. In addition, the National Space Fund aims at adopting governance systems to achieve leadership in the space sector, attracting specialised global companies, and building partnerships between national and international advanced technology companies.

National policies for Cybersecurity

The Cabinet meeting approved the National Policy for IoT security, the National Programme for Cybersecurity Accreditation, the National Policy for Cloud Security. In addition to a number of related policies aiming at providing solutions for current and future challenges related to cybersecurity.

The meeting also approved the formation of a national committee to combat cyber-attacks.

Cyber security. (source: ianstwitter/)

Advance Government work with AI technologies

The Cabinet approved a policy to raise the efficiency of government work through the use of artificial intelligence technologies. The policy includes standards and guidelines that guarantee safe use of AI, and the scope of its use in government work.

The policy aims at increasing the productivity and efficiency in various sectors, enhancing competitiveness and the quality of government services, and provides more training opportunities for employees.

“Made in UAE”

The Cabinet adopted a decision on updating the “Made in the UAE” unified national mark ecosystem, in order to support national products. The update includes simplifying the procedures for obtaining the mark, allowing industrial facilities in free zones to obtain it, and confirming the facility’s commitment to product safety through the application of conformity standards.

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-Top News China USA

US to counter China by expanding trade ties with Africa

The US want to wrest control of the supply chain for electric car batteries from China in Africa, where reports of child abuse and forced labour are rampant.

In order to counter China in Africa, which has made inroads with investments and trade, the US sought to expand its influence by bolstering trade ties in the continent, writes Arianna Skibell in Politico.

Biden administration is planning investments in the supply chain for electric car batteries in Africa. The US want to wrest control of the supply chain for electric car batteries from China in Africa, where reports of child abuse and forced labour are rampant, writes Politico’s E&E News reporter David Iaconangelo.

Notably, China is playing out in African mines. Zambia and Congo are major sources of cobalt and copper, key ingredients for lithium-ion batteries.

Once extracted, the bulk of those minerals are exported to China, where 75 per cent of the world’s lithium-ion batteries are made, writes Skibell.

The US wants to disrupt that flow by helping Congo and Zambia not only extract minerals but also process, manufacture and assemble them into batteries.

“This is the future, and it is happening in (Congo) and in Zambia,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken proclaimed last month at the signing of a US agreement with the central and southern African nations.

While the US agreement to help these African countries create a competitive battery industry doesn’t mention China, success there could create a new base for competing against the Asian superpower.

At the same time, it could open the door for new partnerships with US car companies, reported Politico.

That could be crucial for helping President Joe Biden meet his goal of having electric vehicles account for half of all new US car sales by the decade’s end.

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Analysts predict a looming supply shortage of critical minerals, reported Politico.

Progress on the world’s rising climate action ambitions could be undermined by a shortage of some of the critical minerals used in clean-energy technologies including wind turbines, solar farms and electric vehicles (EVs), unless governments act now to head off a “looming mismatch” in supply and demand, according to a far-reaching report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

It is pertinent to note that Chinese trade with Africa is about four times that of the United States. Beijing has become an important creditor by offering cheaper loans – often with opaque terms and collateral requirements – than Western lenders.

According to a Eurasia Group analysis, in 2021 China-Africa trade, at USD 254 billion, vastly outstripped US-Africa trade, which stood at USD 64.3 billion. Those figures are up from USD 12 billion and USD 21 billion, respectively, in 2002.

Western leaders have sharply criticized what they see as Beijing’s foot-dragging in addressing the heavy debt burden facing many African countries.

China remains the region’s largest bilateral investor, but its new loan commitments to Africa have declined in recent years.

It’s not all about economic sway – Washington has been alarmed by China’s efforts to establish a military foothold in Africa, including on the Atlantic coast in Equatorial Guinea. (ANI)

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-Top News UK News

‘Trade talks with India not conditional on illegal migration’

Braverman’s remarks had contributed to the talks failing to conclude by a Deepavali deadline…reports Asian Lite News

Finalising a trade deal with India is not contingent on New Delhi taking back Indians who are in the UK illegally, the British government said on Wednesday.

“On the separate issue of migration and returns, we’ve made huge progress on that issue, particularly after the agreement made between Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi and Prime Minister [Boris] Johnson in May last year, and cooperation on that continues as well. But they’re distinct issues,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the foreign press at a Wednesday afternoon briefing.

The spokesperson was responding to a question on whether the UK government was making a trade deal with India conditional on India taking back “significant” numbers of illegal migrants.

The comments contradict what Home Secretary Suella Braverman had said about the Migration and Mobility Partnership (i.e., the protocol signed by Modi and Johnson in May 2021) in October to Spectator, when she was in the same role in the Liz Truss administration.

Braverman had said the protocol had not worked very well and that she had some reservations on aspects of the UK-India ‘Free Trade Agreement’ (FTA), i.e., on the question of visa flexibility for students and entrepreneurs, because Indians were the largest group of visa overstayers in the UK.

Braverman’s remarks had contributed to the talks failing to conclude by a Deepavali deadline. The Indian High Commission in London had reacted by saying it had acted on all cases of overstaying referred to it by the U.K.’s Home Office. Days later, Ms. Braverman had walked back some of her comments by saying the U.K. and India were “eager” to secure a deal. Mr. Modi and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have also expressed their commitment to concluding a deal, after Mr. Sunak assumed office at the end of October.

There was no change in the U.K. government’s negotiating strategy after Mr. Sunak took charge, his spokesperson said on Wednesday, in the context of both the U.K.-India trade talks and Britain’s negotiations to accede to the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership).

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