After roughly 18 years of intermittent negotiations, the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA), also referred to as a Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), was affirmed as concluded on January 27, 2026.
Branded as the “mother of all trade deals,” the agreement seeks to increase investment, liberalise trade in goods and services and strengthen strategic and economic ties between India and the EU, one of India’s significant trading partners.
Together, India and the EU account for a market of about 2 billion people, a third of global trade and roughly 25% of the world’s GDP. It unites India, which has a sizable consumer market and a rapidly expanding economy, with the EU, one of the biggest economic blocs in the world.
The negotiations are settled, but the FTA still has to undergo formal legal scrubbing and ratification by the European Parliament and member states and the Indian government before it can come into force. The implementation is expected in late 2026 or 2027.
The India-EU Free Trade Agreement aims to significantly reduce, and in many cases eliminate, tariffs over a broad range of goods and services, facilitating easier trade between two of the world’s largest economic blocs. The importance of the agreement is magnified by the fact that it took a long and arduous path to completion, with negotiations starting in 2007, breaking up in 2013 amidst differences and remaining dormant for almost a decade before being restarted in a different global trade context.
CIHS - Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies 