Imagine you run a small restaurant. For years, no one else was allowed to open a restaurant within two kilometres of yours. You had guaranteed customers. Your food was decent but nothing special — why bother improving when people have no choice? Now the authority says: one more restaurant can open nearby, but only after three years, and only for 50 customers a day. Suddenly you start worrying — but you also start cooking better. That is exactly the argument this article makes about the India-UK FTA.
The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) came into force on 15 July 2026. The former Chief Economic Adviser has written an op-ed with a surprising claim: the real value of this FTA may lie not in the exports India gains, but in the imports India allows in.
The export side — the easy-to-celebrate part. Nearly 99% of Indian exports by value now enter the UK duty-free — textiles and garments, leather, marine products, processed food, engineering goods, auto components. These are labour-intensive, job-creating sectors. Until now India carried a handicap: Bangladesh, Pakistan and Cambodia shipped garments to Britain duty-free while Indian exports paid 12–16% tax. That gap is now closed. Indian generic medicines — the world’s largest supply — also get duty-free access to a market that buys close to $30 billion of pharmaceuticals a year.
A third, very human win. An Indian IT professional posted to London used to pay into the British social-security system — money they would almost never see again — while also paying into India’s system back home. The Double Contribution Convention now stops this double payment for up to five years. Over 75,000 workers and 900 companies save roughly $600 million a year.
Now the uncomfortable part. India has agreed to cut duty on British-made cars from about 110% to 10% over time, and Scotch whisky from 150% to about 40% over a decade. These cuts are phased, capped by quotas, and designed to give Indian industry time to adjust.
The former CEA’s core argument: this import opening is not a concession — it is a gift India gives to itself. Protection that never ends does not build strong industries; it preserves weak ones. An industry that never faces a better product never learns to make one. Where Indian carmakers have had to compete (small and mid-sized cars), they have become world-class; where they have been shielded (luxury and large vehicles), there has been little reason to improve.
Finally, a warning: signing an FTA and making it work are two different things. India’s FTA utilisation rate has historically been low — the government and industry bodies must actively educate small businesses about the opportunities.