Lord Bilimoria eyes the British PM’s visit to India to strengthen India-UK ties.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to India will build momentum towards a multi-fold increase in goods and services trade, a British industry chief said on Thursday. ”We are bilaterally doing GBP 24 billion worth of trade in goods and services and, in my view, it should be a multi-fold of that given the scale of the two economies. With Canada, UK trade is about GBP 20 billion. With China, on the other hand, UK trade is over GBP 90 billion, so we should be doing much more with India. We’ve got targets to try and double it by 2030, but I believe we can do much more than that and an FTA will help to scale up the level of trade,” Lord Karan Bilimoria said.

The founder of Cobra beer brand, who heads up the industry body that speaks on behalf of British businesses, also expressed his optimism that an India-UK free trade agreement can be concluded by the end of this year. ”Firms will welcome the GBP 1 billion new investment announcements in India, but the point I do want to make is that we are still scratching the surface when it comes to UK-India trade,” Lord Billimoria said. “ We are bilaterally doing GBP 24 billion worth of trade in goods and services and in my view, it should be a multi-fold of that given the scale of the two economies. With Canada, UK trade is about GBP 20 billion, with China, on the other hand, UK trade is over GBP 90 billion, so we should be doing much more with India. We have got targets to try and double it by 2030, but I believe we can do much more than that and an FTA will help to scale up the level of trade,” he said.

The entrepreneur was equally optimistic about Johnson’s further spend-up timeline of autumn, or around October this year. The confederation of British Industry has been instrumental in pushing through the UK’s other recent FTAs, including ones with Australia and New Zealand, and is playing an active role in the India FTA negotiations. “Where there is a will, there is a way. It is certainly possible. If the Australia FTA could be done in one year, there is no reason why we can’t with India,” said Bilimoria. “We have an acute labour shortage in the UK across all sectors. So, if there are skilled Indians who fulfill the requirements, then we should be welcoming them.