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Describing the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as the most significant trade pact India has concluded so far, Ashish Chauhan, Managing Director and CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), said the deal is comprehensive and is expected to benefit India across both goods and services, particularly labour-intensive sectors.
Speaking to ANI, Chauhan said, "Broadly the expectations were already built by calling it the mother of all FTAs few days back and I think and in some ways it's a very comprehensive FTA whatever has been announced." Highlighting the scale of trade between India and the EU, he said, "The total trade between India and EU -- all countries put together -- is $220 billion in goods and services put together, out of which $135 billion on goods and the remaining are in services. Both areas are covered very well." Chauhan said bilateral free trade agreements are more beneficial for India compared to earlier multilateral arrangements. "Basically the way I look at it is they were not so fair to India. And the other countries were able to benefit much more, while the bilateral FTAs are going to be much more beneficial," he said. He added that the India-EU FTA could help India gain ground in sectors where it was earlier less competitive. "It is going to help India gain for the whole areas like textiles where similar countries were doing much more business in sectors like marine, leather, handicraft and many other areas," Chauhan said, noting that tariff reductions could improve competitiveness. "The tariffs are being reduced by almost all of them, close to zero, and that is ensuring that probably the value of goods, specifically in the labour-intensive areas, may go up in the future for India," he added. On the proposed India-US trade deal, Chauhan said negotiations are ongoing and he was sure the government would safeguard farmers' interests. "It has been in negotiations for some time," he said "The way this government has been ensuring that the farmers' interests are taken care of, the small-scale workers are taken care of, that's how this particular deal has been signed, and probably as and when India US deal happens, we will have similar deals." Turning to the Union Budget 2026-27, Chauhan said markets continue to expect tax concessions, though the government's ability to make major changes remains limited. "The budget has always been creating expectations since India became independent, and post GST (rationalisation exercise), post direct tax code, the ability to change too many taxes is not there with the government," he said. He added, "Of course market people continue to expect a lot of concessions, including reduction in GST, reduction in capital taxes - long term, short term, reduction in STT and many other things." (ANI)
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