Britain and India clear final hurdle to launch free trade deal next month

Britain and India have cleared the last obstacle to a free trade deal that will cut tariffs on whisky, gin and cars first, while the steel dispute that delayed the rollout exposed how fragile the politics of post-Brexit trade can still be. The agreement will enter into force on July 15, after Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi settled the implementation date at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, turning a pact signed in July 2025 into a working commercial framework for the world’s fifth- and sixth-largest economies.

The immediate gains are concentrated in sectors that can sell into India faster and at lower cost. India’s tariffs on whisky and gin will fall from 150% to 75% on day one, then to 40% by year ten, a shift that could unlock demand in the world’s largest whisky market. Automotive tariffs will drop from more than 100% to 10% under quota, while cosmetics tariffs of up to 22% are being eliminated either immediately or after a phase-in period. British officials say about £400 million in tariff cuts will land in the first year alone, giving exporters a concrete incentive to move quickly.

For India, the deal opens a wider channel into a major Western economy while preserving leverage on sensitive sectors. The UK says India will eliminate tariffs on 90% of tariff lines, with 85% of those becoming fully tariff-free within a decade. India’s trade-weighted average tariff is expected to fall from 15% to 3%, a meaningful reduction in a market long protected by high border taxes. The governments have also tied the pact to the “living bridge” of at least 1.9 million people of Indian heritage in the UK, and they have paired the trade deal with a Double Contributions Convention to prevent workers and employers from paying social security contributions twice on the same earnings.

The British government says the treaty should raise UK GDP by £4.8 billion and increase bilateral trade by £25.5 billion a year in the long run, adding economic weight to a deal that London wants to present as proof that it can still strike large agreements outside the EU. The Scotch Whisky Association called the start date a “once in a generation” opportunity, a sign that spirits producers expect to be among the earliest beneficiaries. Yet the steel question shows the backlash risk remains real: industrial sectors can still force concessions, and implementation will be judged not by the signing ceremony but by whether supply chains, investment and market access actually broaden on the ground.