India-UK FTA faces data low rift

NEW DELHI/LONDON : A United Kingdom parliamentary report on India-UK Free Trade Agreememt negotiations has said that India’s pursuit of data localisation is a “stumbling block” in free cross-border data flows among the two sides.

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.

India’s insistence on data localization is a “major stumbling block” to a planned free trade agreement with the UK, a report tabled in House of Commons said on Friday, signalling continuing differences on cross-border data flow issues.

On information flows, it mentioned that the UK’s trade talks of free and trusted cross-border information flows; a ban on information localisation necessities; stopping the obligatory switch of supply codes, algorithms and encryption keys; a ban on digital tariffs and discrimination towards digital codecs; collaboration on rising tech; and recognising e-signatures and digital contracts.

“Nonetheless, the UK and India look like very far aside on these points. A significant potential stumbling block on this regard has been the Indian authorities’s pursuit of laws that might have the impact of requiring information localisation,” the panel mentioned.

“It stays to be seen how far the newest iteration of draft Indian information laws, the Digital Knowledge Safety Invoice, will show an impediment to fulfilling the UK’s offensive pursuits on this regard,” it added.