Landmark Free Trade Agreement

The free trade agreement between India and the European Union comes after nearly two decades of waiting. The development was akin to the biblical saying that “When one door closes, another one opens". When Trump closed the US door by imposing a 50 per cent tariff on Indian products, another door opened for trade opportunities for India.

This is the largest trade deal in India's history. The EU, a grouping of 27 countries including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, is the world's second-largest economy. The agreement they made with India, the world's fourth-largest economy, is a silent repartee to Trump's unilateral economic measures. As part of the agreement, duties will be reduced or eliminated on 99.5 per cent of Indian exports to EU countries. In return, India will provide proportional relief on 97.5 per cent of imports from the EU. The effort is to bring the agreement into force within a year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the trade deal after a summit attended by European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The bilateral trade agreement became a reality after long negotiations. This free trade agreement also equips India to meet the economic and defence challenges posed by the United States and China in a changing world order.

The complete exemption of 27 per cent duty on products with a high labour force in India, such as textiles, seafood, rubber, and jewellery, is nothing less than a great achievement of the nation. The opening of 144 sub-categories, including IT, professional services, education, and business services, in EU countries can be considered a historic achievement. India's growth is also giving new hope and dreams to the underdeveloped countries of the world.