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London
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The European Union and India agreed a free trade deal Tuesday, the largest such deal ever clinched by either side, as they contend with an erratic trade policy from key trading partner the United States.
“We did it, we delivered the mother of all deals,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive, told reporters in New Delhi.
The agreement will strengthen economic and political ties between the 27-nation bloc and the world’s fourth-largest economy, the commission said in a statement, “at a time of rising geopolitical tensions and global economic challenges, highlighting their joint commitment to economic openness and rules-based trade.”
“We have sent a signal to the world that rules-based cooperation still delivers great outcomes,” von der Leyen said in the statement.
Just recently, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose higher tariffs on the European nations opposing his push to annex Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, though he later backed down from the threats. For the EU as a whole, the United States is its biggest export market.
And in August, Trump announced an additional 25% tariff on India as punishment for importing Russian oil and natural gas, building on a previously announced 25% tariff rate.
The EU and India already trade more than €180 billion ($215 billion) worth of goods and services per year. Trade in goods between the two sides has almost doubled in the last decade.
Talks on the trade deal, which started in 2007, were relaunched in 2022 after a long suspension, and last week von der Leyen highlighted the work on the agreement as she spoke of the need to build “a new form of European independence.” Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, she said such independence was needed as a result of current geopolitical shocks and that Europe preferred “fair trade over tariffs.”
Tuesday’s announcement follows a recent trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, a South American trading bloc.
India also signed trade deals with various countries in 2025, a year marked by Trump’s return to the White House and his chaotic trade policy.
The EU-India agreement is expected to double EU goods exports to India by 2032 by eliminating or reducing tariffs, the European Commission said.
As part of a number of provisions in the deal, Indian tariffs on European cars will gradually fall from 110% to 10% and tariffs on machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals from Europe will mostly disappear.
Indian tariffs on EU wines will also initially halve from 150% to 75% and will eventually fall to 20%, while tariffs on European olive oil will go from 45% to zero over five years.
The EU will also reduce its tariffs on Indian goods, benefiting labor-intensive sectors such as textiles, tea, spices, gems and jewelry among others, India’s commerce department said in a statement.
Daniel Kral, a senior economist at advisory firm Oxford Economics, said the deal “has large symbolic importance in a world of rising protectionism,” noting that it was unlikely to significantly boost either the EU or Indian economy.
The agreement still needs to go through various legal steps before coming into force.
CNN’s Jack Guy contributed to this report.