Business Secretary Peter Kyle declined to set a timeline to bring into force Britain's free trade agreement with India after the Asian nation warned UK steel safeguards could prompt a rethink of tariff concessions.
"These things take time, but we've been working at breakneck speed, and I think that breakneck speed will continue," Kyle told journalists on Wednesday night after returning from a one-day visit to India. "If we implemented the deal in autumn this year, it would be the fastest implementation period of any trade deal that Britain has ever signed."
Asked if that timeline was the government's ambition, Kyle added: "That's not what I said." Nevertheless, he said he had held constructive talks with Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.
Kyle's remarks come after an Indian official earlier this week said the government could scale back tariff relief on a range of products under the trade deal signed last year, due to concerns over the UK's recent steel safeguards which will sharply reduce tariff-free import quotas.
UK officials have sought to play down the threat, saying the free trade agreement has already been signed. However it has not yet been implemented, and while people familiar with the deal were initially hopeful that could be done by spring, it could now be indefinitely delayed.
Kyle also said the UK's relationship with China had evolved into "a much more conventional diplomatic engagement" over the last decade. Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pushed for more clarity in a meeting with his UK counterpart, Yvette Cooper, on how the UK defines national security for investment purposes.
Earlier this year, the UK blocked Chinese renewable energy company Ming Yang from opening a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Scotland over national security concerns.
Kyle said he had been "very frank with them about what we mean by national security and what we mean by deepening the trading relationship," and while investments in national infrastructure were unlikely to be approved, projects such as Nissan's recent agreement to produce cars for Chinese company Chery at its Sunderland plant showed that "China is enthusiastic about investment in Britain."
China has joined European companies in raising questions around how the EU's Industrial Accelerator Act, which imposes "Made in EU" requirements for public procurement, will affect the UK, Kyle said. France is currently urging Brussels to address Britain's exclusion from the planned rules
"BMW, Siemens, Renault have all been very open about their concerns about their desire to learn more about the Industrial Accelerator Act with relationship to Britain," Kyle said. "It's not surprising that China would as well."
Kyle's comments came after he delivered his annual speech at London's Mansion House, warning Labour colleagues against pursuing redistribution of wealth without first prioritizing economic growth as the party faces a potential tilt to the left if Keir Starmer is replaced as prime minister.
"Redistribution without wealth creation is a zero-sum game that results in greater poverty of ambition, poverty of opportunity and poverty of outcome," Kyle said. "Equality without prosperity is the equality of the graveyard."
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