Last week the Government announced the launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement between the UK and India. If we manage to strike such a deal with India then it will be highly significant to Britain, both economically and difficulty. 

Let's start with the economic benefits. The UK already does quite a lot of trade with India, totalling around £23 billion each year. Unfortunately, trading with India is not as simple as it could be, with a lot of complicated regulations which British firms have to adhere to if they wish to do business and sky-high tariffs on goods. As I pointed out on this site last week, high tariffs on most goods are thankfully a thing of the past - sadly, India is the exception that proves the rule. 

This means that a free trade deal which lowers or removes tariffs could represent a real boost to British businesses. For example, the tariff on Scotch whisky is currently 150% and on cars it's 125%. Slashing those rates means cheaper goods for India's billion-plus consumers, as well as more jobs and higher wages here in the UK. The same is true for the pharmaceutical and aerospace industries, which also face high tariffs.

But it's not all about the tariffs. There are many other costly and time-consuming barriers to trade, such as rules of origin requirements and customs procedures, which a free trade deal would hopefully alleviate.

Then there are services. The rules which UK businesses currently have to deal with date back to the 90s and, while there have been huge technological advances since, these rules have not really been updated - much to the chagrin of our world-leading services businesses.

It's also encouraging to see the UK's commitment to including a digital chapter in the FTA. Digital trade is often overlooked but things such as the free flow of data, the protection of encryption technologies, and the ban on data localisation are vitally important.