India has protected all sensitive sectors, including dairy, rice and sugar, in the free trade agreement with the UK, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.
The pact will help boost exports of labour-intensive products like footwear, textiles, gems and jewellery, he added.
"We have protected all the sensitive sectors of India...we have not opened for the UK (those areas)...Zero compromise and extensive benefits make it a phenomenal free trade agreement (FTA)," Goyal told reporters here.
The agreement was signed on July 24 in London.
The agreement will open doors for India to the developed world, Goyal said.
He also said that the Double Contribution Convention or social security agreement will help Indian professionals who are working on short-term contracts in the UK.
These professionals lose about 25 per cent of their income as they have to pay towards the UK's national security programme.
After the agreement, "they can pay the same amount in the provident fund in India. So, it will become their savings, and it is not the money lost, and that will become their pension or security for the future," Goyal said.
The pact will provide a level playing field to them, he said, adding that the India-UK FTA is a comprehensive agreement, which is going to be an important stepping stone to many more agreements with other advanced countries.
It sets the benchmark of high-quality FTAs that India will be doing in the future, he said.
Goyal added that every agreement stands on its own feet and "I think this can become the gold standard to ensure that India protects sensitive sectors and opens the doors, particularly in areas where it is highly labour-intensive and allows high-quality goods of technology to come to India".
He also informed that the legal service has been kept out of the agreement with Britain.
The pact may take about a year to come into force as it requires the approval of the UK parliament.
On opening the automobile sector in the FTA, he said there was a time when India could not do FTAs with many countries because they were not opening the sector, and due to that, India lost so many opportunities.
"How intelligently we have opened the sector in this FTA," the minister said, adding that to increase utilisation of this FTA, he will hold meetings with all the sectors in the days to come.
The minister will also visit states to share information and the benefits of this pact.
"We will be sensitising the sectors," he said.
