India and the European Union (EU) announced the conclusions on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) of negotiations over a free trade agreement (FTA) that the EU will drop tariffs on 99.5% of items India exports to the region, with most tariffs going down to 0% once the agreement is implemented.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič on Tuesday signed the joint announcement on the conclusion of negotiations on the FTA, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and President of the European Council António Costa.
The results of the FTA negotiation put an end to the two-decade struggle; the tasks began in 2007. Talks resumed in 2022, with both sides agreeing to resolve the issues that had been delaying the agreement.
According to officials at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the document’s language will be cleaned up over the next 10-15 days, and after cleaning, it will go to “legal scrubbing”. Further, it will go to all 27 EU member states after translation, before being approved by the European Parliament.
India has concluded its first-ever largest Free Trade Agreement. Mr Modi said that this historic agreement will facilitate access to the European market for our farmers and small industries, create new opportunities in manufacturing, and strengthen cooperation in our services sectors. Ms. von der Leyen also said that this will create a market of 2 billion people.
India ensured that strategic agricultural sectors, including dairy, were excluded. The EU will maintain its current tariffs on sensitive products, including beef, sugar, rice, chicken meat, milk powder, honey, bananas, soft wheat, garlic, and ethanol.
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It has been learnt that negotiations over a few sectors, such as automobiles and wine, had caused some problems, but the two sides eventually agreed to quota-based systems satisfactory to both. On wine, too, India agreed to lower the duty from the current 150% to 20-30%, depending on the wine’s price, and subject to quotas.
