Vehicle and marine exports to the European Union have shown a growth in excess of 25% in the April-December period of this financial year and these are expected to gain greater traction once the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between both sides becomes operational.
The vehicle exports to the EU grew more than 50% to $ 2.2 billion in the first none months of 2025-26. This resulted in an increase in share of EU to 11.6 % in India’s total automotive exports of $ 19.5 billion. In April-December of 2024 the share of EU in Indian vehicle exports was 9.8%.
Apart from vehicles the exports of automotive components including engines and their parts was up 28.1% to $ 725 million. In this category the share of EU in India’s global exports increased to 4.1% in April-December 2025 from 2.9% in the same period of last year.
India’s marine exports to the EU including fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other products increased 26.5% to $ 982 million in April-December of 2025-26. Cereal exports increased 87% on year during the period to $ 339 million while tea, coffee and spices exports were flat at $ 773 million. Gums, resins and other vegetable sap exports were $ 173 million in first nine months of the current financial year up 20.9% on year.
After the operationalisation of India-EU FTA, the agri exports to the region are exected to benefit from preferential or zero duty access, officials said.
Overall exports to EU in April-December have contracted 3.92% to $ 55,1 billion. Largely due to 23.3% drop in exports of petroleum products to $ 9.4 billion and 46.2% contraction in shipments of telecom instruments to $ 3.2 billion.
In the agreement signed on January 27, India has gained preferential market access across 97% of the tariff lines covering 99.5% of the trade value. The FTA will become operational after completion of the ratification process on both sides. The effort is on to get the process completed this calendar year itself for the early implementation of the deal.
Once operational 70.4% tariff lines covering 90.7% of India’s exports will have immediate duty elimination. This will cover sectors like textiles, leather and footwear, tea, coffee, spices, sports goods, toys, gems and jewellery and certain marine products, amongst others. Around 20.3% tariff lines covering 2.9% of India’s exports will have zero duty access over 3 and 5 years. This includes certain marine products, processed food items, arms and ammunition.
The 6.1% tariff lines covering 6% of India’s exports will have preferential access by way of tariff reduction for certain poultry products, preserved vegetables, bakery products amongst others or through quotas for cars, steel, certain shrimps and prawns products, amongst others.