India, EU finalise landmark trade deal: Modi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India and the European Union have completed a landmark trade agreement that will represent a quarter of the world economy.
After nearly two decades of interim negotiations, the agreement will pave the way for India to open the world’s largest large and protected market to free trade with the 27-nation EU, its largest trading partner.
“A major agreement was signed between the European Union and India yesterday,” Modi said.
“People around the world call this the mother of all agreements. This agreement will bring huge opportunities for 1.4 billion people in India and millions of people in Europe,” he said.
He added that the agreement represents 25 percent of global GDP and a third of global trade.
Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to make a joint statement, including details of the agreement, at the India-EU summit in New Delhi later on Tuesday.
Trade between India and the EU stood at US$136.5 billion ($197.4 billion) in the financial year to March 2025.
The deal comes just days after the EU signed a landmark deal with South American bloc Mercosur, following agreements with Indonesia, Mexico and Switzerland last year.
During the same period, New Delhi signed agreements with England, New Zealand and Oman.
President Donald Trump’s bid to take over Greenland and tariff threats against European countries are testing long-standing alliances among Western countries, while the spate of agreements underscores global efforts to guard against the United States.
Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on goods from India and the India-US trade deal collapsed last year after communication between the two governments broke down.
An Indian government official aware of the matter said the official signing of the India-EU agreement will take place after legal review, which is expected to take five to six months.
“We expect the agreement to be implemented within a year,” the official added.
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
