Ready And Willing (To Trade)

With the Commonwealth keen to set up a trade hub in India to promote trade and investment after Brexit, the exim trade can look forward to improved trade relations with Britain

India is looking forward to promote trade with Britain and the Commonwealth after Brexit kicks in. The recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) at London that was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who apparently was wooed to attend the meet by none other than Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall in November last year – was an opportunity for Britain to push bilateral trade which in 2015-16 was $14.02 billion.

Even as the India-Britain meeting saw the chalking out of a plan of a post-Brexit bilateral free trade deal, the Commonwealth (with its membership of 53 nations) has moved ahead. In fact, those who were keen to cut off ties with the European Union, the Brexiteers, have been saying that the opportunity had come for crafting out trade deals with growing Commonwealth economies like India. It was because of the EU that Britain could not trade freely with other countries.