Kyle Refuses to Set India Deal Timeline Amid Spat Over Steel

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, ...