UK-India: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

My Lords, like many others who have spoken today, I pay tribute to my noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith for his superb chairmanship of the International Agreements Committee. In particular, I thank him for his work in guiding us through the process that produced the report that we are discussing today. I also welcome, although he is not in his place, our new chair who has, as he demonstrated in his speech, boundless enthusiasm for the work he has in hand. I winced slightly when he talked about doing even more work, because I have looked at our forward programme, but perhaps he has not. We are going to be working to midnight most times we meet, not just the relatively hard time we had under my noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith. It is a very hard-working committee. Its reports are worth the sort of concern and discussion that we are having today, and I am pleased to be a member.

Along with the noble Lord, Lord Johnson, and my noble friend Lord Anderson, I was one of the committee members invited recently to discuss the report that we are discussing today with the Indian high commissioner. I can confirm from that meeting that there is absolutely no doubt that India regards this FTA as an important achievement and a signal of the determination of the current Administration in Delhi to ensure that India becomes one of the world’s leading trading nations in very short order. We have heard a bit more about that today. In our report, we congratulate the Government on their significant achievement in reaching this agreement. Our decision to draw the agreement to the special attention of the House and to have a debate on the grounds that it is politically important and gives rise to issues of public policy is certainly justified by the excellent list of speakers in this debate today.

I shall make three points, some of which have already been raised by others. We strongly welcome that this agreement is compliant with Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Beyond the important benefits of deepening bilateral co-operation and integration, an FTA between India and the UK offers stability to businesses at a particularly challenging time for international commerce and rules-based trade. Part of the uncertainty arises from recent fluctuations in US tariffs, which are undoubtedly going to go on, but we also heard evidence that there has been a growing tendency for protectionism and, as one witness said, that trade is increasingly embedded in geopolitical strategies. One important element of this FTA is that it signals to the world that both parties are seeking out what another witness called,

“reliability, resilience, ownership and security”

in their economic relationships going forward. We can hope that other countries see the benefits in making agreements of this type within the WTO rule-based system.

Secondly, we welcomed the evidence we heard that this agreement secures improved up-market access to India for UK exporters. The new preferential access, however, needs to overcome the many non-tariff barriers recently introduced by the Indian Government that have already been referred to. These are based on a number of quality control orders. When we met the Indian high commissioner, we asked what action was being taken on non-tariff barriers to trade. The commissioner was very reassuring that this issue would be handled quickly, but we additionally recommend that the Government

“ensure that industry has sufficient support to navigate and tackle … the complex regulatory environment in India and divergences between different Indian states”.

We also note

“the concerns raised by domestic industries about the additional competition that domestic agrifood, food and drink producers will face as a result of the immediate liberalisation of the UK markets for the vast majority of product lines”,

as we have heard. We recommend that the Government set out their assessment of the impact on the food and drink industries of competition from the Indian market in England and the devolved Administrations and urgently bring forward any measures they intend to put in place to support these industries, as may be required.

Thirdly, we note that the agreement does not liberalise services trade to the same extent as goods trade. As others have pointed out, there is relatively new market access for legal services in particular. However, procurement is opened up, which will certainly make a huge difference for certain British trading companies. Having said that, the agreement represents one of the most significant commitments that India has made to the liberalisation of digital trade to date. We recommend in our report that the Government

“develops a clear strategy to counter restrictions and build on the digital provisions in the Agreement in ways that promote the UK’s policy goals and are consistent with its digital commitments with other major trading partners, both now and in the future”.

Most speakers today have picked up that our inquiry highlighted the need for the trade agreement to be a living instrument and not just a static one. It is clear that a great deal of effort will be needed to ensure that UK businesses are in a position to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the agreement both here in the UK and through the High Commission of India through its regional offices. Given the size and significance of India, we recommend that the Government make that objective a high priority. I look forward to hearing from my noble friend the Minister how the Government propose to address this in the coming months.