Exim

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Date: 16/05/2025

FTA with UK has sufficient safeguards for sensitive sectors

India’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK has sufficient safeguards for sensitive sectors. Even in the case of automobiles, the tariff cuts will be spread over a period of 10-15 years and subject to quotas like an annual 22,000 for electric vehicles. On sensitive agriculture products like dairy, apples, oats and edible oils, and industrial items like precious metals, smartphones and optical fibres, there will be no cuts offered. On medical devices, the sector that is covered under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, the duty cuts will start only from the sixth year of the FTA. Even when PLI runs its course, the duties would not have dropped to zero. In whiskey and gin, tariffs will be halved to 75% before reducing to zero in the next ten years, said a report.

Source: Exim News Service: New Delhi, May 15