Navigating the EU-India trade deal: what’s next?
India and the EU have established a landmark trade deal, but is the commercial kitchen sector ready to realize the benefits? Lauren Hurrell reports
The EU and India together represent almost two billion people and one quarter of global GDP. In the largest deal ever concluded by either side, both entities signed a landmark Free Trade Agreement in January 2026 that will see India offer the EU major tariff reductions, notably reducing machinery tariffs from 44% to almost zero, granting the EU a unique competitive advantage across key sectors.
“We have sent a signal to the world that rules-based cooperation still delivers great outcomes,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on the new deal. “And, best of all, this is only the start – we will build on this success and grow our relationship to be even stronger.”
India's Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi added that the deal will “deepen economic ties, create opportunities for our people, and strengthen the India-Europe partnership for a prosperous future.”
The agreement aims to boost trade and political ties, creating opportunities across sectors as India's economy and hospitality industry continue to grow, even amid shifting trade dynamics, geopolitical tensions and economic challenges. But the deal has also presented significant regulatory complexity that could potentially hinder the commercial kitchen sector from realizing these benefits.
“The devil will always be in the details,” says John Cunningham CFSP, chief executive of Foodservice Equipment Association (FEA), which supports the foodservice equipment industry in the UK with an ethos to maintain connections across territories. Cunningham highlights that the EU is the UK foodservice equipment sector's largest international trading partner, with a strong, established relationship even post-Brexit. However, he shares concerns that there has been insufficient consultation with industry on such trade agreements, making businesses unprepared to reap the benefits.
“It's imperative to keep industry under your wing and keep us close to these negotiations so that we can bring the risks, opportunities and get the market aligned in preparation for these signings,” says Cunningham. "But our industry is very adaptable and will pick up the opportunity. The FEA stands by, ready to help members with all of the challenges and opportunities presented to them."
Barriers to trade
With more than €180 billion worth of goods and services traded between the two entities each year, supporting close to 800,000 EU jobs, this ambitious deal aims to double EU goods exports to India by 2032 by eliminating or reducing tariffs in value of 96.6% of EU goods exports, which is forecast to save around €4 billion per year in duties on European products, according to the European Commission.
But it also creates several complexities for businesses to navigate, particularly for kitchen equipment manufacturers required to comply with mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and quality control orders (QCOs), which mandate ISI marking on products such as stainless steel items and electrical appliances to ensure safety and quality. Failure to comply with restricts manufacturing, selling or importing.
“From our perspective, the biggest challenge is less about tariffs and more about non-tariff and technical barriers to trade (TBT), and this is precisely where immediate relief still appears limited,” says Adrian Brändle, economic officer at HKI Industrial Association House, Heating and Kitchen Technology in Germany.
“Equipment must undergo obligatory certification, even though it is compliant with similar directives and safety norms, as in Europe,” adds Joakim Granfors, secretary general of EFCEM. “Acquiring certification can be a long and complex process, so on the one hand, tariffs are going down, but additional certification requirements make it complex to understand, particularly with little differentiation between domestic and commercial appliances.
A challenge of standardizing
While the UK and EU share high levels of compliance, standardizing across technical, energy, safety and hygiene standards for exports to India will be a challenge for businesses.
"[Certification] validity is so limited in time that the effort involved is hardly worthwhile. As long as these barriers remain in place, I fear that the lower tariffs for our appliances will not have a significant impact," says Brändle.
“We have to then apply our own highly regimented technical standards, compliance, hygiene factors to equipment that comes into the UK, or EU, and that will be a real test, adds Luke Slater, director of technical & policy, FEA. “Our home standards are exceptionally high, so we will need to apply regimented inspection and standard enforcement of anything that comes into the UK. It will be interesting to see whether equipment can meet our standards, or whether development is required to conform.”
Other issues, Slater points out, are related to sustainability compliance. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) policy tool, designed to put a fair price on carbon emitted during the production of intensive goods, targets energy-intensive countries such as India and China, which do not always have stringent sustainable practices, for example, in stainless steel production.
“We've got a great opportunity within a trade deal, but we have sustainability legislation saying we should be trying to keep emissions low by sourcing products within EU soil and reducing carbon emissions through doing so,” says Slater. “So that will be interesting, to see how trade deals work alongside CBAM targets.”
Opportunities ahead
Despite these challenges, there is certainly optimism on the horizon, with opportunities to build a roadmap through collaboration and support from the likes of EFCEM, FEA, HKI, and other EFCEM members in Europe to relieve businesses of the burden of deciphering legislation and parsing out the details they can actively navigate with support.
"Historically, India has been viewed as quite a protected market, certainly within catering equipment, not least because of the cuisine styles. But this agreement will naturally allow greater choice in the market for these companies, and particularly for the larger hospitality chains," says Slater. “I think we're going to have a battle in terms of standardization, but potential is there, and with willingness on either side, we can overcome the challenges”.
There will be a significant need to harmony among all parties involved. Still, if businesses can navigate and overcome regulatory complexity with effective support, there could be great opportunities ahead for all parties.
“The EU-India deal is a great opportunity between both entities, but China is also a player in the market, changing trade dynamics, as is the US,” says Cunningham. “In the international context, it's quite complex, and it will be interesting to see how all this plays out. But where there's risk, there's opportunity.”