The House of Commons International Trade Committee, in its latest report on “UK trade negotiations: Agreement with India”, also cautioned that increased UK market access for India in textiles, clothing, footwear and horticultural products could have an “adverse impact on some developing countries in South Asia, South-East Asia and East Africa which benefit from preferential access to the UK market”.
On data flows, it said that the UK’s industry talks of free and trusted cross-border data flows; a ban on data localisation requirements; preventing the mandatory transfer of source codes, algorithms and encryption keys; a ban on digital tariffs and discrimination against digital formats; collaboration on emerging tech; and recognising e-signatures and electronic contracts.
“However, the UK and India appear to be very far apart on these issues. A major potential stumbling block in this regard has been the Indian government’s pursuit of legislation that could have the effect of requiring data localisation,” the panel said.
“It remains to be seen how far the latest iteration of draft Indian data legislation, the Digital Data Protection Bill, will prove an obstacle to fulfilling the UK’s offensive interests in this regard,” it added.
It cited the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre referring to “ongoing violations of human rights and labour rights in India”.