Trade Policy

The India–United Kingdom Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), after a series of rigorous negotiations and extensive ratifications, came into force on July 15, 2026. More than a bilateral market-access arrangement, the trade deal represents an institutional framework designed to deepen economic integration between two complementary economies while responding to an increasingly fragmented global trading landscape.

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2026-2035 projects higher average farm incomes, broadly stable real commodity prices, and continued growth in food demand, but it also highlights persistent inequality, rising agricultural emissions, and the disproportionate vulnerability of low-income countries to energy and fertiliser shocks.

Food insecurity is frequently portrayed as a humanitarian challenge requiring emergency assistance, nutritional support and international relief operations. While these dimensions remain critically important, such a perspective increasingly understates the broader significance of contemporary food crises. In an interconnected global economy, food insecurity has evolved beyond a development concern into a systemic risk capable of influencing trade flows, commodity markets, inflation dynamics and geopolitical stability.

The Indore Declaration was unanimously adopted on June 13, 2026, marking the end of the 16th BRICS Agriculture Ministers' Meeting in Indore. A systematic commitment by eleven member countries, each with different farming landscapes, political systems, and economic development levels, to realign global agriculture towards food security, sustainable farming, digital innovation, and smallholder welfare.

The India-European Union (EU) Trade Agreement is a landmark free trade agreement that is coming after almost two decades of its initiation. The agreement covers the traditional areas like trade in goods, services, trade remedies, rules of origin, customs, and trade facilitation, as well as emerging areas like SMEs and digital trade, amongst others.