The India–UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), is one of the most comprehensive Post-Brexit trade deals, establishes a historic milestone in bilateral economic ties and provides a boost to India-UK trade.
The agreement has not been spoken about enough. Tariff elimination for textiles, apparel, gems, jewelry, leather, machinery, auto parts, pharma, agri-products, chemicals, processed foods, and marine products would go a long way in boosting India’s exports in these sectors. Expected 20–40 percent rise in exports in key sectors like textiles and apparels.
Indian exports in key sectors especially textiles faces a stiff competition from Bangladesh, China and Vietnam. Zero or reduced tariff for 99 percent of Indian exports to the UK, will allow the key players in India an upper hand. This is going to help our MSME in a major way. Export boost in leading manufacturing clusters in Tiruppur, Surat, Ludhiana, Pune, Noida, Chennai, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, etc.
According to MSME apparel business exporters in the NCR region this could impact their margins by almost 20%. This would bring in employment and improve the quality of Indian exports. Leather is another key product that would see a lot of interest now.
Airport at Jewar with a specialised logistic hub for exports to UK and Europian markets would go a long way in increasing our exports from Agra and NCR region. Shipping delays and long supply chains make products up North less compititive.
After having analysed the over all impact it is felt the exports after the aggreement are likely to increase by 20% in the short term and about 30% in the long term. This will give an over all boost to Indian economy.
Quarantine standards for agriculture goods in Europe have been quite high and the Indian products generally missed the cut earlier. Now with duties down the farmer would get an opportunity to work on the quality and quarantine standards. This could increase our agriculture exports in a major way. Tea, spices, rice exporters could benefit majorly from this.
