India's growth from an erstwhile colony of the British Empire to a towering trade partner to the entire European Union in 79 years has been nothing short of monumental.
A year ago, in Feb 2025, when the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, visited India, she wasn't merely taking photographs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in front of electric buses. That visit was one of the many that shaped a strategic partnership between the EU and the nation for the new age, built over thirty years of the India-EC Cooperation Agreement.
So, when India recently released its WTO-plus framework outlining the free trade agreement with the EU, the focus moved to the new—emphasising digital efficiency, regulatory trust, and SME empowerment—all the while preserving policy space for both giants.
A free trade agreement is usually seen as a duty cut deal with the age of the Trump tariffs, but the India-EU FTA breaks it down granularly to serve the country's strategic pivot to services, tech, and innovation-driven trade, in the hopes of potentially unlocking €200 billion in bilateral flows.
The third chapter delves into Rules of Origin, for they are the unglamorous foundation of any FTA. They answer a simple but vital question: where does a product really come from? For instance, can any exporter assemble goods from components obtained from any other country, slap a Made in India label on them, and claim FTA preferences at the EU border?
This predicament is factored into the India-EU FTA text with considerable sophistication. A product qualifies as "originating" either because it is wholly obtained in India or the EU or because it has been sufficiently worked or processed there, in accordance with product-specific rules laid out in a separate annex based on the Harmonised System of tariff classification.
It also introduces a "de minimis" or tolerance rule: if a product fails the product-specific rule because of a small amount of non-originating material, it can still qualify if that non-originating content stays below 5 per cent of weight for agricultural products in HS Chapters 1–8 and 10–13, below 10 per cent for most other products, or below 10 per cent of the ex-works or FOB value for the rest.
For the Indian textiles sector, where global supply chains are complex, separate, detailed tolerance provisions apply in Notes 6, 7 and 8 of the rules, acknowledging the reality of multi-country fibre sourcing.
The most consequential procedural reform is the move to self-certification. Under the FTA, an exporter or producer will issue a "Statement on Origin" on their own responsibility, attached to an invoice, valid for twelve months, in a template specified by the agreement and drawn up in English.
The EU goes further, also allowing importers to claim preference based on their own knowledge that a product is originating — a model familiar from the EU's existing trade agreements that shifts significant responsibility and liability to the supply chain.
Critically, an electronic authentication mechanism must be operational at entry into force, so that customs in the importing country can verify a Statement on Origin. If that system is not ready when the agreement kicks in, a fallback certificate-of-origin mechanism issued by authorised Indian agencies (or EU customs authorities) fills the gap.
Provisions for retrospective certificates, duplicate issuance, and strict anti-fraud cooperation (including the possibility of verification visits to exporters' premises by officials from the other country), add layers of accountability to what might otherwise be a self-certification free-for-all.
As India and the EU finalise this landmark pact, Chapter 3 stands as the gateway, ensuring genuine Indian-made goods flow duty-free into Europe's markets while protecting both sides from origin fraud. How this balance of flexibility and verification positions Indian manufacturers, particularly in textiles and chemicals, to compete globally on fair terms, will prove the effectiveness of the FTA, as the country looks to transform into one of the world's biggest precision manufacturing hub within a decade.