India's Trade Agreement With the United Kingdom Took Effect on 15 July 2026, With Duty-Free Access for About 99 Per Cent of Indian Exports and More Than US$140 Million of Goods Shipped on the First Day

The India-United Kingdom Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, called CETA, entered into force on 15 July 2026. India’s Commerce Ministry says that on that first day more than 50 export consignments worth more than US$140 million were flagged off from more than 20 ports, airports, inland container depots (cargo yards that clear customs away from the coast), special economic zones and factories, all under the new preferential tariff rate.

A second treaty, the Agreement on Social Security, also called the Double Contribution Convention, began the same day. What follows sets out what each side agreed to, where the two governments’ headline percentages measure different things, and what official trade data exists as of 14 October 2026.

From a 2021 roadmap to a 30-day countdown

The groundwork was the India-UK Roadmap 2030, adopted in May 2021, which set a goal of doubling bilateral trade to US$100 billion by 2030, according to the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s release service. Negotiators concluded CETA on 6 May 2025 after 14 formal rounds. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said at the 15 July event that those rounds included more than 800 technical sessions.

The treaty was signed in London on 24 July 2025. The companion social security convention was signed on 10 February 2026. PIB says the two prime ministers decided on 15 July as the start date when they met at the G7 summit in France, thirty days beforehand. The UK government announced the date on 17 June 2026 and told businesses they had 28 days to prepare.

CETA has 30 chapters. PIB’s June release says it covers digital trade, telecommunications, financial services and intellectual property, and, for the first time bilaterally, government procurement.

What Indian exporters get in the UK

India’s Commerce and Industry Minister said on 15 July that the agreement gives zero-duty access to nearly 99 per cent of India’s exports, covering almost 100 per cent of trade value. The UK government gives the headline as 99 per cent of Indian goods entering the UK being duty-free or at a reduced tariff.

PIB’s June release lists the tariffs that fall to zero: up to 70 per cent on processed food, up to 21.5 per cent on marine products, up to 18 per cent on engineering goods and auto components, up to 16 per cent on leather and footwear, up to 12 per cent on textiles and clothing, and up to 8 per cent on chemicals and pharmaceuticals. (For the pharmaceutical side of India’s export record, see how India became the world’s pharmacy.)

India’s merchandise exports to the UK were US$13,444.19 million in 2025-26, the PIB table of 28 July 2026 shows. The first-day consignments covered electronics, pharmaceuticals and gems and jewellery, and left from Mundra, Nhava Sheva and Chennai ports and from air cargo complexes at Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The 12 October joint statement from the two governments adds smartphones, turbojets, gold jewellery, garments, woollen yarn, tea and coffee to the list, and records that rice of the Joha variety from Assam was shipped to the UK for the first time.

Services are covered too. PIB says the UK committed to all major services sectors and 137 sub-sectors of interest to India, and agreed a dedicated route for 1,800 Indian chefs, yoga instructors and classical musicians a year.

What British exporters get in India

India’s side of the schedule is staged. Whisky carried an Indian tariff of 150 per cent, the same figure as the ceiling on import duties set in the 1991 reforms. The UK government’s summary says it falls to 75 per cent on day one and to 40 per cent from year 10, with gin following the same path. Cars are handled by quota: tariffs of up to 110 per cent come down to 10 per cent inside a quota. On business.gov.uk, the quota for petrol and diesel cars starts at 20,000 units in year 1 and reaches 37,000 by year 5, and electric, hybrid and hydrogen passenger cars enter the quota from year 6.

The UK government says India will remove or reduce tariffs on 90 per cent of its tariff lines (each line is one product code in a customs schedule), covering 92 per cent of existing UK goods exports to India on a 2022 base. Counted across all Indian tariff lines, 64 per cent become duty-free on day one, covering about £1.9 billion of 2022 UK exports, and 85 per cent are duty-free after ten years. London puts the saving on duties at about £400 million in the first year and about £900 million after ten.

By 12 October the two governments reported early results: Scotch whisky had entered India at the reduced tariff, the first tariff-free Scottish salmon arrived within a fortnight of 15 July, and cars shipped under the quota had cleared Indian customs. The statement gives no quantities.

Why 99 per cent and 90 per cent are different numbers

The British High Commissioner at the 15 July event described both figures as shares of tariff lines: about 99 per cent of UK lines, covering nearly all Indian exports to the UK, and 90 per cent of Indian lines, covering 92 per cent of current UK exports to India. India’s Commerce Minister stated the Indian figure as a share of exports and of trade value. A count of lines treats a product with no trade the same as one worth billions, while a share of value counts what is actually sold, so the two kinds of figure cannot be set side by side.

Each side also kept a protected list. PIB says India shielded dairy products, cereals, millets, edible oils, oilseeds, apples and several vegetable products. The UK government’s summary lists sugar, milled rice, pork, chicken and eggs as outside India’s liberalisation.

Steel was settled separately. The UK brought in new steel measures on 1 July 2026, and PIB reports that 85 per cent of India’s exports are outside them. For the lines they do cover, PIB says India’s access was kept through a mix of quota arrangements and an authorised-use scheme.

The social security convention

When an engineer is posted from Bengaluru to Manchester for a few years, both countries can ask for social security contributions on the same salary. The Double Contribution Convention removes that. Indian workers and employers are exempt from UK contributions during a temporary assignment, and PIB says the exempt period is now five years, up from three.

PIB expects more than 75,000 Indian professionals and over 900 companies to benefit, and its 18 August note puts estimated savings at more than Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion). The arrangement is reciprocal. The UK government says British nationals working in India can build UK State Pension entitlement without paying Indian contributions for up to 60 months instead of 36, while continuing to pay National Insurance.

Origin paperwork

A preferential tariff applies only to goods that qualify as made in the partner country, which is what “rules of origin” decide. PIB says the first certificates of origin were issued on 15 July through India’s eCoO 2.0 platform on a self-certification basis. Its 18 August note adds that CETA lets exporters declare origin themselves, allows an importer’s own knowledge to count, and waives origin documents for consignments under £1,000. British exporters register once with HMRC’s origin registration portal, business.gov.uk says, and the UK page says goods are to be cleared within 48 hours where possible.

What the numbers show so far

The official figures that exist cover the period before the agreement. The UK government’s factsheet of 24 September 2026 puts total UK-India trade in goods and services at £48.4 billion in the 12 months to March 2026, up 5.7 per cent. UK exports to India were £20.2 billion, up 14.1 per cent, and imports from India were £28.2 billion, up 0.4 per cent. India ranked eleventh among the UK’s trading partners, with 2.5 per cent of UK trade (for the wider picture, see India’s GDP rank in numbers).

The forward numbers are modelled. The UK impact assessment, updated 9 March 2026, estimates that in the long run (measured against projected 2040 levels) bilateral trade would be about £25.5 billion a year higher, UK GDP about £4.8 billion higher (0.13 per cent) and India’s GDP about £5.1 billion higher (0.06 per cent). The assessment calls long-run modelling highly uncertain and says its results are not a forecast.

The sources opened for this article contain no official bilateral figure for the months since 15 July. At the 16th meeting of that committee, held in New Delhi on 12 October, the two governments agreed to exchange data on how often businesses claim the lower tariffs, starting one year after entry into force, and to hold the 17th meeting of the Joint Economic and Trade Committee in the UK in 2027.