PTI New Delhi

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is in London on a two-day official visit to discuss issues related to the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and explore ways to boost trade and investment between the two countries, an official statement said on Wednesday.

During the visit, Goyal will hold a bilateral meeting with the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds. "Both leaders will review the progress made in the ongoing FTA negotiations and chart out a clear, time-bound roadmap for its finalisation and implementation," the commerce ministry said.

Goyal and Reynolds are scheduled to make their first joint public intervention since the FTA negotiations concluded last month at the India Global Forum (IGF) UK-India Week in a session - Agreement to Action in the UK-India FTA. Reynolds has earlier said that "this trade agreement is a huge economic win for the UK - the biggest trade deal since Brexit and the best deal that India has ever offered".

The trade deal is estimated to increase bilateral trade in the long run by GBP 25.5 billion every year - from the current annual estimate of GBP 41 billion - as tariffs are slashed across key sectors on both sides. The FTA is now undergoing a process of legal text formalisation before it can come into force.