The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CETA) is likely to come into force from the second week of May as the ratification process and completion of other legal requirements enter into the final stage, according to an official.
The agreement signed in July 2025, has been vetted by the both houses of UK’s Parliament in March. In India the ratification of FTAs is through executive process, needing Cabinet approval.
Post ratification and before entry into force other rules and regulations also need to be amended to make the agreement enforceable. These include customs notifications by both sides to update the national tariff schedule to bring it in line with the commitments in the trade agreements.
Along with CETA, the Double Contribution Convention (DCC) will come into force. The DCC will exempt Indian professionals and their employers from social security payments in the UK for up to three years. It will ensure that employees moving between the UK and India, and their employers, will only be liable to pay social security contributions in one country at a time.
It will also ensure that employees temporarily working in the other country for up to 3 years will continue paying social security contributions in their home country, preventing the fragmentation of their social security record.
The CETA will allow 99% of the Indian exports to enter the UK duty free and cover almost 100% of the trade in value terms. For the UK, India will reduce or eliminate duties on 90% of the tariff lines that account for 92% of the imports.
The immediate target for the FTA is to double bilateral trade – both goods and services – to $ 120 billion by 2030 from $ 56.9 billion in 2024-25. The talks on the agreement began in January 2022 and were concluded on May 6 last year.
TOPICSIndia UK FTAThis article was first uploaded on April twelve, twenty twenty-six, at three minutes past seven in the evening.