Datanomics: How India-UK CETA can boost trade from textiles to whiskeys

The CETA will allow duty-free access to 95 per cent of India's agriculture exports to the UK, which accounts for a bit over five per cent of the goods exported to the UK

India and the United Kingdom (UK) signed the much-awaited Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta) on Thursday, allowing 99 per cent of Indian exports to enter the UK market duty-free. India will cut or eliminate tariffs on 90 per cent of the UK goods. The Ceta will also benefit India’s services sector by easing the mobility for skilled Indian professionals. 

The deal is expected to boost labour-intensive export sectors, such as textiles, which includes readymade garments, whose share in total exports to the UK nearly halved from 17.45 per cent in 2019-20 (FY20) to 9.83 per cent in FY25. 

 

India has also agreed to  reduce the tariffs on whisky  imports from the UK to 40 per cent over 10 years. Share of alcoholic beverage imports was around  2.5 per cent to 4 per cent in total imports from UK over the past six years. 

 

 India has a trade surplus with the UK, dominated by professional, consulting services, and others (Chart 3). Yash Kumar Singhal