The India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will help textiles, leather, footwear, gems and jewelry, chemicals, and marine sectors and serve as a boost to exporters affected by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) has said in a statement.
The India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will help textiles, leather, footwear, gems and jewelry, chemicals, and marine sectors and serve as a boost to exporters affected by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) has said in a statement.
India and the European Union (EU) on Tuesday
announced the India-EU FTA that they have hailed as the “mother of all deals”.
Under the India-EU FTA, more than 90 per cent of goods are set to lose tariffs or sea a reduction. For Europe, the FTA would grant a much broader access to the Indian market for its automobiles, auto parts, spirits and wines, foodstuffs, machinery, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
As India and Europe largely export goods that the other does not produce, increased trade due to the FTA is likely to complement domestic industries instead of competing with them, according to analysts.
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For India, the FTA would grant a much broader access to the EU’s market for textiles, leather, footwear, gems and jewelry, chemicals, marine products, dairy products, agricultural products, and auto parts, CTI Chairman Brijesh Goyal said in a statement.
Goyal further said that the FTA would lead to an increased demand for Indian products in EU’s 27 member-states and Indian companies would also be able to set up base in Europe. As a result, he said that the India-EU trade could rise to $50 billion in the coming years.
While India-EU trade negotiations predate US President Donald Trump’s tariff war, it is an open secret that trade talks picked up speed after
he slapped heavy tariffs and political coercion on India and the EU — slapping 50 per cent tariffs on India and imposing tariffs on the EU in the 10-50 per cent range.
Goyal said that these tariffs had a “very negative impact” on India’s textile, leather, gems and jewelry, auto components, chemical, pharmaceutical, seafood, and electronics sectors, and threatened the jobs of 1 million people in the country. He added that the India-EU FTA would help these sectors.
Flagging the extend of tariffs’ harm, the statement said that Indian goods became up to 35 per cent more expensive in the United States compared to goods from other countries, causing American buyers to prefer products from other nations over those from India.
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