Two Continents, Two Deals: India’s
Trade Map Redrawn in Europe
A bridge of commerce: India’s new agreements with the United Kingdom and the European Union connect two of the world’s largest markets. Illustration: Australian Indian Times
In the space of a single year, India has redrawn its trading map of Europe, with one landmark agreement already in force and a second, far larger pact moving steadily toward signature.
The first came into effect quietly. On 15 July 2026, the United Kingdom-India Free Trade Agreement entered into force, and HM Revenue and Customs began administering the new regime of origin declarations, certificates of origin and importer knowledge that now underpin preferential trade between the two countries. British exporters must register before completing origin declarations, and businesses on both sides are learning the rules of the road.
The second is bigger in every respect. On 27 January 2026, at the 16th India-EU Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the conclusion of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, ending negotiations that had begun in 2007, stalled for years, were relaunched in 2022, and ultimately ran for nearly 17 years.
The scale of the access is striking. More than 99 per cent of Indian exports to the EU by trade value will gain preferential market access, and tariffs of up to 10 per cent on almost USD 33 billion of labour-intensive Indian exports, including textiles, apparel, leather, footwear, marine products, gems and jewellery, handicrafts, engineering goods and automobiles, will drop to zero when the agreement enters into force.
On services, India has secured predictable access to 144 EU subsectors, including IT and IT-enabled services, professional services and education, while offering the EU access to 102 Indian subsectors in return. The pact also covers digital trade, SMEs, intellectual property and cooperation in artificial intelligence, clean technologies and semiconductors.
The deal has cleared its first European hurdles.
In September 2026, the European Commission submitted the agreement to the EU Council for authorisation of signature and conclusion, and in October, Goyal met EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic on the sidelines of the G20 Trade Ministers’ Meeting in Milwaukee to review progress toward signing and entry into force.
For European exporters, the agreement opens India’s growing market of 1.4 billion consumers, with calibrated, quota-based liberalisation for automobiles and new opportunities in food and beverages, from tea and coffee to processed foods.
The implementation machinery is already being built. In early November, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal held meetings in Brussels with the European Commission’s directors-general for trade, international partnerships and taxation and customs union, discussing market access, supply-chain resilience, customs procedures and preparations for putting the FTA into effect, along with the future of the Antwerp-centred diamond trade.
Both sides describe the pact as fair, balanced and mutually beneficial.
For Indian industry, the prize is a single set of rules across a market of 450 million people, and for Europe, a trusted partner in a world of fragile supply chains.
For Australia’s Indian community, the significance is generational: the industries of the towns their families left behind, from Surat’s diamond workshops to Tiruppur’s knitwear factories, now hold duty-free keys to the world’s largest single market.
