UK-India Free Trade Agreement

Gareth Snell Excerpts

Monday 9th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade (Chris Bryant)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the UK-India Free Trade Agreement.

I will start by saying why this deal is so important. That may seem obvious, I suppose. We did £47.2 billion-worth of trade with India last year. That was up 15% year on year, and India is now our 10th-largest trading partner, but it is the future potential that stands out. India has the highest growth rate in the G20. It is likely to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2029. By 2050, India will be home to more than a quarter of a billion high-income consumers. Demand for imports is due to grow as well, reaching £2.8 trillion by 2050. Assuming global foreign direct investment into India continues on its recent trajectory, it could grow to £1 trillion by 2033.

Despite all that, India’s markets have been behind some of the highest barriers in the world. It has some of the highest tariff rates in the G20, with gin and whisky at 150%, cars at 110% and cosmetics at 22%. Soft drinks, lamb, fish, chocolate and biscuits—I know that is an odd combination—are at 33%. In 2024, India was ranked as the eighth most restrictive services market by the OECD. That inevitably either prices many UK products out of the market or makes them a premium product beyond the reach of many in India.

Some 42% of UK businesses surveyed by Grant Thornton in 2024 said that they would want to build a presence in India, and 72% said that a free trade agreement would encourage them to explore the Indian market. The agreement that this Government secured was a momentous achievement. Others had been trying to get a deal like it for years and failed, but this Prime Minister, along with the then Secretary of State for Business and Trade, my right hon. Friend the Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (Jonathan Reynolds), and my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Lothian East (Mr Alexander)—I pay tribute to them—brought home the goods.

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Chris Bryant]

Oh dear. I will give way, but I think I know what my hon. Friend is going to say.

[Gareth Snell]

The UK is the single largest importer of Indian ceramics. The trade deal removes some of the tariffs that we apply to Indian imports. The removal of those tariffs, along with industrial energy pricing in India, means that those imports become incredibly competitive in comparison to our domestic market. In some cases, those imports are well below our own market production point. Bricks are also affected. We are the single largest importer of Indian bricks, yet our own brick kilns stand at two-thirds capacity. Can the Minister set out the protections in this trade deal to ensure that while we get the new markets for our exports, we do not undercut our domestic market with cheaper imports?

[Chris Bryant]

I thought my hon. Friend might be about to talk about ceramics. He regularly speaks up—privately to me and publicly in the House and elsewhere—on behalf of his constituents, and he is right to do so. As he knows, I visited some of the businesses in his constituency, and I am keen to ensure that we do everything in our power within the Department to support, protect and enhance the British ceramics industry, which is an important part of our work. I just say to my hon. Friend that the overall impact of this agreement on the ceramics industry will be limited, because 543 out of 577 lines—steel lines, for instance—were already at 0%. The remaining 34, which we brought to 0% as part of the deal, all currently have tariffs of just 2% or 3%, and India is not a prominent source of imports for those sectors.

I accept that there are broad issues for the ceramics industry, and I have seen everything that Mr Flello, a former denizen of this place, has produced. I do not think that this agreement is the problem. There are other issues that we need to address, not least the issues that my hon. Friend raises in relation to energy costs, which are very specific to the ceramics industry.