Why does the India-EU FTA matter?

The India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) hailed as the “mother of all deals” by both the EU and India, has been under negotiation since 2007. Since the text of the agreement is not available yet to fully verify this claim, it is worth evaluating what can be gleaned about the agreement from the documents released by both sides so far (the EU and India). The Highlights Goods The biggest immediate gain for both sides appear to be on goods, and both parties’ statements focus on these. The coverage appears significant. The FTA reduces tariffs on textiles, apparel, leather, footwear, chemicals, sports goods, toys, gems, and jewellery by India. For the EU, the gains lie in industrial goods, precision machinery, electrical equipment, aviation components, medical devices and other advanced tech. Beyond that, India reducing the high tariffs on cars (although subject to TRQ) is a significant win for the EU. Removing tariffs on chocolate and olive oil altogether, reducing tariffs on wine and spirits, and apples and pears is the cherry on top for the EU’s agriculture sector. Both sides targeted the low hanging fruits and pushed liberalisation of the more controversial goods for further down the road. Sensitive agricultural products [...]

By , |2026-02-18T14:27:39+00:0018 February 2026|Blog, International Trade|0 Comments
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How to deliver a UK-EU “re-set” that works

Debates about deepening UK-EU relations, including in the current ‘re-set’ negotiations,  often focus on what will the UK gain versus what it must concede.  Yet, what constitutes a win or a loss for the UK is complex – and if Brexit has taught us anything, it’s that people have diverse, and sometimes polarized, views. This is why an effective re-set of UK-EU relations requires thinking about an aspect of negotiations that is often overlooked, or viewed as a technical consideration: how the UK implements the re-set domestically. More specifically, the UK needs to address the democratic deficit in UK treaty-making, and establish bespoke arrangements on EU regulatory alignment, now and in the future. The surest way to future-proof a closer relationship with the EU is to create a sense that the UK public, and particularly those affected by regulation, have a say in this decision. The importance of domestic implementation Despite its renowned tradition of direct democracy, Switzerland aligns its regulations with the EU across numerous sectors. For example, it recently concluded an EU-Swiss Common Food Safety Area, in which it agreed to align with EU food law across a wide range of areas. At first glance, this decision may [...]

By |2026-01-07T14:56:29+00:0026 November 2025|Blog, International Trade, UK- EU|0 Comments
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Trump’s trade deals: It’s not 1931, yet.

  The overall impact of Trump's actions may only represent a modest shock to the rest of the world, primarily because the US budget and trade balances are likely to widen due to the fiscal stance, which will boost US demand relative to output. However, there could be significantly different relative impacts on other countries. Ultimately, the final outcome will depend on whether the rest of the world magnifies or dampens these effects. The spate of recent “trade deals” done by the US does not stabilise the world trade system; rather, it creates ongoing uncertainty. It’s not like 1931 when the Smoot-Hawley tariffs dramatically increased tariffs on all suppliers across the board simultaneously as US aggregate demand was collapsing, sending a huge macro-economic shock across the world. The US was the world’s biggest importer, and other countries worsened the situation by raising protectionist barriers against one another, e.g. the UK Tariff Act of 1932. Even though the new Trump tariffs are nearly as high as those of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the US accounts for only about 15% of world imports. At the same time, Trump is cutting taxes (on the rich) in a manner that is very likely to [...]

By |2025-08-01T13:03:23+01:0030 July 2025|Blog, International Trade, UK- EU|0 Comments
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A few important steps forward: the UK-EU strategic partnership

The current UK Government is focused on delivering economic growth and positioning the UK as an important economic and diplomatic player internationally. The relationship with the EU is probably the most crucial bit in this jigsaw, and the deal struck on Monday, outlined in a “Common Understanding”, indicates the direction of travel: cautiously and selectively rebuilding closer relations with the EU along a number of dimensions, first and foremost on security and defence matters, but also including energy, environmental, and some economic aspects. We will discuss three particular areas that are related to trade in the ‘common understanding’: fisheries and trade in agri-food products, youth mobility, and cooperation on energy markets and carbon emissions, respectively.  We explain why the deal delivers in two out of three areas.  More could have been done, and with firmer commitments.  The document essentially represents a negotiating agenda with mostly aspirational language, whereby the two parties agree to “work towards” certain outcomes and everything has to be finally negotiated.  Yet every journey starts with a single step, and the one taken on Monday is a sensible step in the right direction. Fish and food: Significant departures from Brexit A core, perhaps the main, EU demand [...]

By , , , , |2025-05-21T18:45:18+01:0021 May 2025|Blog, International Trade, UK- EU|0 Comments
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The CPTPP does not prevent the UK from aligning its agri-food regulations with the EU.

One reason the UK Government wanted to join a trade agreement consisting of Pacific Rim countries, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), was to prevent any current and future UK Governments, from undertaking regulatory alignment with the EU. As Lord Frost explained in 2021, ‘…. to do trade agreements with other countries [i.e. CPTPP] you need to have control of your own agri-food and SPS [Sanitary and Phytosanitary] rules”. A UK-EU SPS agreement, which the Labour government has promised to pursue, would likely result in at least some alignment of regulation in SPS areas: human, animal and plant life and health. In these areas, the UK would lose some control over its rules. So, can the CPTPP prevent the UK from concluding an Agreement with the EU? We argue that it cannot. New Zealand conclusively proves that it is indeed possible to be a CPTPP party and also have an EU veterinary agreement. Its EU veterinary agreement reduces the incidence of border checks in a few areas on animal products. However, such a light agreement (New Zealand, which exports few products to the EU and from 18,000 kilometres away) would hardly resolve the border barriers facing UK farmers. So [...]

By , |2024-12-17T11:01:44+00:0017 December 2024|Blog, UK - Non EU, UK- EU|0 Comments
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Surviving the General Product Safety Regulation: Challenges for small businesses

As the UK’s largest trading partner, any legislative changes to trade rules within the EU impact the UK’s trade with the EU. The EU General Product and Safety Regulations (GPSR), entering into force on December, is a case in point that will especially impact any small businesses conducting online sales. The objective of this piece of legislation is to safeguard consumers in the EU against potentially dangerous products. By progressing from a Directive to a Regulation, the EU GPSR harmonises the product safety blueprint at an EU-wide level, to ensure consistency across all member states. In essence, the GPSR applies to any products placed on the EU market that have not already been regulated by existing EU harmonised legislation. The updated regulation is a significant revision of its predecessor, the EU General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC and builds on the Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on Market Surveillance and Compliance of Products. While these rules have long applied to exports to the EU and Northern Ireland (under the Windsor Framework), the updated GPSR eliminates exceptions relating to the presence of an EU-based authorised representative. All small businesses selling online or through mail order must now have an Authorised Representative based in the [...]

By , |2024-12-17T09:40:18+00:0013 December 2024|Blog, UK- EU|0 Comments
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Why discussion of Trade Policy matters in the General Election

30 May 2024 - Ingo Borchert is Deputy Director of the UKTPO, a Member of the Leadership Group of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP) and a Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex. Michael Gasiorek is Co-Director of the UKTPO, Co-Director of the CITP and Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex. Emily Lydgate is Co-Director of the UKTPO and Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Sussex. L. Alan Winters is Co-Director of the CITP and former Director of the UKTPO. A general election is underway, and the parties are making various promises and commitments to attract voters, and both the main parties – the Conservatives and Labour – are keen to persuade the country that they have a credible plan. Now it might just be that the authors of this piece are trade nerds, but one key aspect of economic policy has not yet been clearly articulated, or even mentioned – and that is international trade policy. In our view, this is a mistake. As a hugely successful open economy, international trade constitutes a significant share of economic activity, supports over 6 million jobs in the UK, spurs innovation, and enhances consumption choices. [...]

By , , , |2025-01-15T12:06:48+00:0030 May 2024|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|6 Comments
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Non-regression on environmental protection: Making sense of the REUL Bill

16 June 2023 Chloe Anthony, Doctoral Researcher at University of Sussex Law School and Legal Researcher for the UK Environmental Law Association’s Governance and Devolution Group. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill is part of the Government’s ‘Brexit opportunities’ agenda. It is currently in its final stages in Parliament, going back and forth between the Houses, in a debate on the inclusion of clauses that aim to safeguard parliamentary scrutiny and prevent the lowering of environmental protections. It returns to the Commons on 20 June. […]

By |2025-01-29T15:26:15+00:0016 June 2023|Blog, UK- EU|1 Comment
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Driving round the bend: Rules of origin and cars

8 June 2023 Michael Gasiorek is Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Co-Director of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Peter Holmes is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Emeritus Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Manuel Tong Koecklin is a Research Fellow in the Economics of Trade at the UK Trade Policy Observatory and University of Sussex Business School. Recently, there have been a series of reports in the media focussing on the challenges that electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers are likely to face, from the end of this year, in exporting electric vehicles tariff-free to the EU. The concern it because of the changes in the rules of origin (ROOs) requirements (for EVs and batteries) which will become more difficult from January 2024, and again from 2027 and 2028 onwards. […]

By , , |2025-01-29T15:27:05+00:008 June 2023|UK- EU|1 Comment
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Rules of origin do matter after all!

19 May 2023 Michael Gasiorek is Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Co-Director of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Nicolo Tamberi is Research Officer in Economics at the University of Sussex and Fellow of UKTPO. Earlier this week Vauxhall announced it may withdraw from producing electric vehicles in the UK owing to difficulties from meeting ‘rules of origin’ on EU exports. The car manufacturer called for a revision to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the EU and then UK, notably regarding rules of origin (ROOs). Ford and Jaguar Land-Rover have also warned of the difficulties and called for a revision to the TCA and German producers have also expressed concerns about the meeting these ROOs. […]

By , |2025-01-29T15:30:36+00:0019 May 2023|Blog, UK- EU|1 Comment
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