



Mint Explainer | What India gains and what it loses in free trade pact with EU
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The long-awaited free trade agreement between India and the European Union was announced on Tuesday. While the EU has already released a chapter-by-chapter summary, India’s official text is still awaited.
Often billed as the “mother of all trade deals", the pact spans 20 chapters and is being pitched as a major win for both sides. From India’s perspective, the agreement promises substantial gains in goods and services exports and deeper integration with a large developed market. At the same time, it locks in some of the EU’s toughest regulatory standards, while leaving sensitive areas—especially agriculture and carbon-related costs—largely unresolved.
Mint explains the agreement, chapter by chapter. India’s biggest gain is improved market access for goods. The EU will eliminate tariffs on over 90% of tariff lines, covering 91% of trade value, rising to 99.3% with partial liberalisation.
This sharply improves competitiveness for labour-intensive exports such as textiles, apparel, footwear, marine products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, which earlier faced EU duties of 6–12% or more. Tariff cuts level the playing field for Indian manufacturers in a key developed market. EU is one of India’s largest trading partners.
In 2024–25, India’s bilateral trade in goods with the EU stood at ₹11.5 trillion, or $136.54 billion, with exports worth ₹6.4 trillion ($75.85 billion) and imports amounting to ₹5.1 trillion ($60.68 billion), resulting in a surplus. India-EU trade in services reached ₹7.2 trillion ($83.10 billion) in 2024. The agreement adopts EU-style rules of origin aligned with recent EU FTAs, based on self-certification and digital verification.
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