India and the EU Prepare to Put Their Free Trade Agreement into Action: Customs, Market Access and Next Steps
India's Commerce Secretary, Rajesh Agrawal, held meetings with senior officials of the European Commission (the EU's executive body) in Brussels on how to put the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) into practice.
The talks focused on market access (how easily each side's goods and services can enter the other's market) and customs cooperation (how border officers check goods, verify where they were made and clear them quickly).
India and the European Union (EU) concluded the FTA negotiations on 27 January 2026 at the 16th India-EU Summit in New Delhi. Talks had first started in 2007.
The two sides plan to sign the agreement on 16 December 2026 in Brussels. After that, the EU's Council must approve it and the European Parliament must give its consent. Entry into force is targeted for early 2027.
Once in force, the FTA will remove or cut import taxes (tariffs) on most goods traded between the two sides. The EU's offer covers over 99% of the value of India's exports to the EU, either at once or in phases.
Free Trade Agreements: Concept and WTO Framework
A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a deal between two or more countries to remove or sharply cut tariffs on most of the goods they trade with each other. Each member still keeps its own tariffs for countries outside the deal. Modern FTAs also cover services, investment, government purchases, customs procedures and rules of origin. World Trade Organization (WTO) rules allow FTAs as an exception to the "same treatment for all" rule, as long as they cover "substantially all trade" between the members.
Concluding the text was only the first step. The Brussels meetings were about the practical side of an FTA: which goods get lower tariffs first, and how customs officers on both sides will handle the paperwork so that exporters actually get the promised benefits.
European Union Structure and FTA Ratification
The European Union is a group of 27 European countries that act as a single unit on trade. No EU member signs its own trade deal; the EU signs on behalf of all of them. The European Commission negotiates the deal, the Council of the EU (ministers of member countries) decides on signing and concluding it, and the European Parliament must give its consent. Only after these steps can the agreement come into force.
The meetings in Brussels come while the EU's approval process is under way. Both sides want customs and market-access arrangements ready, so the agreement can work smoothly from the day it enters into force.
Rules of Origin (RoO)
Rules of origin are the tests used to decide which country a product "comes from". They matter because an FTA gives low or zero tariffs only to goods that truly come from a partner country. Without these rules, a third country could send its goods through India or the EU, add a small finishing touch, and wrongly claim the low tariff. Customs cooperation between partners is largely about checking these origin claims quickly and fairly.
Customs procedures were a main topic of the Brussels talks. Clear origin rules and quick verification decide whether Indian textile, leather or engineering exporters can actually claim the FTA's zero-duty benefit at the EU border.
- India-EU FTA concluded: 27 January 2026, at the 16th India-EU Summit, New Delhi
- Planned signing: 16 December 2026, Brussels; entry into force targeted for early 2027
- Negotiations: launched 2007 (as BTIA), stalled 2013, restarted June 2022
- EU offer: over 99% of India's export value covered; about 70.4% of tariff lines duty-free at once
- India's offer: about 92.1% of tariff lines and 97.5% of EU export value covered, much of it phased over 5, 7 or 10 years
- India-EU goods trade (2024-25): about US$136.5 billion; the EU was India's largest goods trading partner
- EU-only agreement: needs Council approval and European Parliament consent, not national parliaments
- India's rules-of-origin law: Customs Act Section 28DA and CAROTAR, 2020 (in force 21 September 2020)