The India–United Kingdom trade deal enters into force

On 15 July 2026, the India–United Kingdom Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, generally called CETA, entered into force. It had been signed on 24 July 2025 in London by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and the then British Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, in the presence of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Keir Starmer, after negotiations launched in 2022. It is India's most comprehensive agreement with a G7 economy and, as the British government put it, the United Kingdom's most economically significant bilateral trade deal since leaving the European Union.

The goods terms are front-loaded in India's favour. From entry into force, 99 per cent of Indian goods entering the United Kingdom are duty-free or face reduced tariffs, removing duties that previously reached up to 70 per cent on processed foods, 21.5 per cent on marine products, 18 per cent on engineering goods and auto components, 16 per cent on leather and footwear, 12 per cent on textiles and clothing, and 8 per cent on chemicals and pharmaceuticals. On the Indian side, 64 per cent of British tariff lines became tariff-free immediately, rising to 85 per cent over ten years. Total United Kingdom–India trade was worth 48 billion pounds in 2025.

Alongside the trade agreement, a Double Contributions Convention on social security entered into force the same day. It ensures that employees moving between the two countries, and their employers, pay social security contributions in only one country at a time for up to five years, a provision aimed at Indian professionals on temporary assignments in Britain. The agreement's thirty chapters also cover services, investment, government procurement, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, digital trade and intellectual property, though the House of Commons Library noted that its services provisions are relatively limited and that Indian tariff cuts are phased in over years while Indian exporters gained immediate access in many lines.

The British government estimates the deal will increase bilateral trade by 25.5 billion pounds a year in the long term and raise United Kingdom GDP by 0.13 per cent, or 4.8 billion pounds — modelling projections, not guaranteed outcomes. For India, the early test is practical rather than statistical: whether exporters, especially small firms, register for origin declarations, meet rules of origin, and convert duty-free access into orders. Preferential tariffs are claimed on the basis of an origin declaration by a registered exporter, so paperwork, not just tariff schedules, decides who benefits.