How to make the most of a trade deal with EU

India and the EU look set to conclude negotiations on a long-pending Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with both sides politically aligned on the need for it.

- Sanjay Tiwari

Earlier this week, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU is “on the cusp of signing a historic trade agreement with India, which, she added, some call “the mother of all deals”. The renewed momentum was evident during German chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to India in January, which underscored Europe’s growing recognition of India not merely as a market, but as a long-term partner in global growth, technology, and resilience.

The signing of the FTA will be just the starting line for businesses on both sides. The real impact of the India-EU FTA will be shaped by how effectively it is implemented, how ambitiously industry engages with it, and how decisively both governments support collaboration beyond tariff reductions and legal frameworks.

The India-EU economic partnership works because of complementarity. Europe brings deep expertise in advanced engineering, clean technologies, precision manufacturing, and trusted regulatory systems. India brings scale, cost competitiveness, a large and skilled workforce, and one of the world’s fastest-growing domestic markets. The FTA has the potential to align these strengths far more systematically than has been possible so far.