{"id":438840,"date":"2026-01-26T16:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/438840\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:24:10","slug":"exclusive-trade-commissioner-says-mother-of-all-deals-will-open-india-market-for-eu-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/438840\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Trade Commissioner says \u2018mother of all deals\u2019 will open India market for EU companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  By&amp;nbsp<a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/profiles\/3206\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Peggy Corlin<\/a>&amp;nbsp&amp;&amp;nbspMaria Tadeo<\/p>\n<p>\n                    Published on                 26\/01\/2026 &#8211; 11:13 GMT+1<br \/>\n                \u2022Updated<br \/>\n                                     11:35\n                                        <\/p>\n<p>European Union trade chief Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said a trade deal with India is \u201cvery close\u201d as the bloc aims to reduce steep tariffs for European companies in one of the fastest growing, but heavily protected, markets in the world. <\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Euronews, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said the two sides are \u201cchecking their final numbers\u201d and referred to the agreement as the \u201cmother of all deals\u201d as it looks to open a market of 1.4 billion people for European exports and services.<\/p>\n<p>India maintains duties as high as 150% in some sectors, effectively shutting European exporters out of large parts of the economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn some sector, India has tariff going up to 150%. And therefore, big parts of the economy has been completely closed off to the European exporters,\u201d \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d told Euronews in New Delhi ahead of an EU-India summit, adding: \u201cNow the big benefit will be opening the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If concluded, the agreement would create a free trade area covering 2 billion people and would lift Indian customs duties on imports from Europe. Not all sectors will be included, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe decided to keep the most sensitive sectors for both of us outside of this deal so we can really focus on the positive outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Around 6,000 European companies currently operate in India. Trade in goods between the EU and India has surged by almost 90% over the past decade, according to Commission figures, with \u20ac48.8 billion of goods exported in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the largest trade deal ever,\u201d \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement would support the EU\u2019s broader strategy to diversify trade ties and reduce reliance on the US and China.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the agreement \u201cwould help us [the EU] have an insurance against the global trade turmoil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>India is currently operating under prohibitive tariffs of 50% under the Trump administration, which last year added an additional 25% rate as a punishment for Indian purchases of Russian oil. <\/p>\n<p>For Brussels the deal would also be as a signal to other partners, amid concerns that delays in ratifying the Mercosur agreement are weighing on the EU\u2019s credibility as a trading power.<\/p>\n<p>Negotiations have been difficult. Indian counterparts are \u201cvery tough negotiators,\u201d \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said, adding: \u201cThey had a high tariff, they are a developing country, and we wanted to respect their specificity, and at the same time, to protect European general interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sustainability remains a key sticking point, particularly India\u2019s opposition to the EU\u2019s carbon border tax.<\/p>\n<p>The free-trade agreement could be announced Tuesday during the EU-India summit in New Delhi. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By&amp;nbspPeggy Corlin&amp;nbsp&amp;&amp;nbspMaria Tadeo Published on 26\/01\/2026 &#8211; 11:13 GMT+1 \u2022Updated 11:35 European Union trade chief Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164,29021,228547,1209,154089],"class_list":{"0":"post-438840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-european-commission","13":"tag-european-council","14":"tag-india","15":"tag-maros-sefcovic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}