EU Statement at the 8th Trade Policy Review of India, 21 July 2026
Thank you, Chair,
On behalf of the European Union, I would like first to welcome the Delegation of India, led by H.E. Mr. Rajesh Agrawal (Commerce Secretary of India). I would also like to thank the WTO Secretariat and the Government of India for their respective reports and express appreciation to H.E. Mr. Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, Ambassador of Brazil, for his remarks as the Discussant.
Chair,
The EU values its Strategic Partnership with India, including the “Joint EU-India Comprehensive Strategic Agenda” endorsed by our leaders at the EU-India Summit of 27 January 2026. Trade and investment are an essential component of this relationship. The EU and India have a long-standing and well-developed trade and investment relation, which the two sides are committed to develop further, as also demonstrated this year, by the conclusion of the negotiations for an EU-India Free Trade Agreement announced by President von der Leyen and Prime Minister Modi at the bilateral summit of 27 January 2026.
Bilateral trade in goods between the EU and India has increased by more than 80% in the last decade. Bilateral trade in goods and services amounted to € 185 billion in 2025. At this stage, however, the untapped potential of our trade and investment relations remains significant. The EU is India's 3rd largest trading partner (accounting for 11.1% of its total trade) but India is only the EU’s 9th largest trading partner (accounting for 2.3% of its total trade).
Our expectation is that the recently concluded FTA, once ratified, will enhance bilateral and investment ties. EU-India FTA is, in fact, the most ambitious ever concluded by India, notably when it comes to tariff liberalisation. High tariffs have been one of the main hurdles our businesses have faced when trying to trade and invest in India. It is also a very ambitious agreement when it comes to the rules, notably on the non-tariff barriers to trade. Implementation will be essential to ensure that the rules we have agreed on paper do materialise on the ground and bring concrete benefits to operators.
Chair,
At a time of geopolitical tensions, India has achieved an impressive track record of sustainable growth. One of the key enablers of that growth has been India renewed commitment towards more economic openness and rules-based trade, and it is clear that Indian operators are ready to compete on global markets.
However, many trade barriers have been maintained or increased in the last years between India and the rest of the world, including the EU. The Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative (“Self-Reliant India”) promotes the opening of India’s economy to the world and its integration in global supply chains. On the ground, however, we still see unpredictable customs procedures, cumbersome SPS requirements, gaps in the protection of intellectual property rights and geographical indications, and the narrowing access to government procurement. Also of concern to the EU is the accelerated trend in India to develop, through an ever-expanding number of Quality Control Orders (QCOs), burdensome conformity assessment procedures for domestic standards that deviate from internationally agreed ones. This risks increasingly insulating the Indian market from the world’s economy and reversing the economic progress that we saw over the last years.
All these continued concerns are reflected in our 75 detailed questions that we have submitted for this Trade Policy Review.
Chair,
We hope that our strengthened bilateral relations including our FTA will inspire India to replicate this open and forward-looking approach also at the multilateral level. In this context, we welcome the deposit of instrument of acceptance of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies by India yesterday.
India is an important Member of the WTO and a key actor in the multilateral trading system. Over the past decades, India has benefited significantly from its integration into global trade and has increased its share in world trade. In line with this growing role and responsibility, the EU encourages India to continue engaging actively and constructively in efforts to strengthen and modernise the WTO. This includes working together in reform discussions to deliver a more effective and efficient organisation capable of responding to today’s challenges; helping the organisation progress in key negotiating files; providing transparency on how India implements its WTO obligations by notifying subsidies in a timely manner and contributing to initiatives that command broad support across the Membership, including among developing Members, notably by lifting its opposition to the incorporation of the plurilateral Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement and the Agreement on Electronic Commerce into Annex IV of the WTO rulebook.
More generally, the EU encourages India to rethink its approach to plurilateral agreements and to consider them as an opportunity to shape the agenda of the WTO and to modernise the organisation rather than as a threat to multilateralism – which they are not, if we build them properly. India would thus help ensure that the WTO remains responsive, effective and able to address current and emerging global trade challenges.
The Trade Policy Review is an important exercise in transparency, which provides WTO Members with a unique opportunity to get a better understanding of how other trading partners perceive their policies, to provide clarifications in this respect, and ultimately to potentially set the ground for improved trade flows. The EU hopes that this TPR will fulfil this role. On behalf the EU, I wish India a very productive and successful review.