The free trade agreement between India and European EFT in four countries will be implemented from October 1, said the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, Saturday July 19, 2025).
The two parties signed the Commercial and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) on March 10, 2024.
As part of the pact, India has received an investment commitment of $ 100 billion in 15 years from the group while granting several products, such as Swiss watches, chocolates and polished diamonds, to lower or zero duties.
“India-Efta TEPA comes into force on October 1,” said Goyal in an article on X.
The members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
The block committed an investment of $ 100 billion – $ 50 billion in the 10 years after the implementation of the agreement and $ 50 billion over the next five years – which would facilitate the creation of 1 million direct jobs in India.
It is a kind commitment agreed in one of the trade agreements signed by India so far.
Commitment is the key substance of the agreement, which has taken almost 16 years to conclude, for India, in exchange for the opening of its markets for several products from the Nations of the EFTA.
India’s largest trading partner in the block is Switzerland.
India has low commercial volumes with the three remaining countries.
In the pact, India offers 82.7% of its price lines or product categories, which cover 95.3% of EFT exports, more than 80% of imports are gold.
National customers will have access to high -quality Swiss products, such as watches, chocolates, cookies and clocks, at lower prices, because India will eliminate customs tasks under the commercial pact on these goods over 10 years.
In the service sector, the Ministry of Commerce previously declared that India offered 105 sub-sectors to EFT, such as accounting, commercial services, IT services, distribution and health.
On the other hand, the country obtained commitments in 128 sub-sectors in Switzerland, 114 from Norway, 107 from Liechtenstein and 110 from Iceland.
The segments, where Indian services will get a boost, include legal, audiovisual, R&D, computer, accounting and audit.
In addition, the Pact would offer national exporters the opportunity to integrate into the EU markets (European Union). More than 40% of world services exports from Switzerland are to the EU. Indian companies can turn to Switzerland as a basis to extend their market scope to the EU.
The two-lane India-Efta was $ 24.4 billion in 2024-25.
On tariff negotiations with the United States, Mr. Goyal said: “Our negotiation strategy depends on national interest. No time, the Narendra Modi government will never allow the national interest to be compromised”.
During the first Assocham management committee for the meeting for the 201025-26 financial year in Mumbai, the minister said that the world recognized India’s strength today and added that “the world recognizes that talent and skills are in India”. And this is what gives us this negotiating lever “.
Declaring that India is negotiating with advanced or developed countries, he said: “We do not try to conclude trade agreements or to focus solely on trade agreements without competitors. We examine additional savings”.
Later, speaking to journalists on the touch of the event, Mr. Goyal said that countries that do not take care of their supply chains and ensure that the supply chains are resilient “will suffer”.
“… I think India has a huge domestic demand. We have imports in the country, which can be replaced by the development of a national industry to evolve for high quality production,” he noted.
And finally, Covid taught us a big lesson, said the minister, adding that “the prohibition on the export of permanent magnets or fertilizers that has been imposed in recent months teaching us a great lesson”.
Published – July 19, 2025 05:28 PM ist
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