On the 26th & and 27th of January, India signed a deal with the EU, which they call ‘The Mother of All Deals’. And so as the name suggests, it is the mother of all deals, as it caters 25% of the global GDP, encompasses 1/3rd of the global trade, unlocks preferential access of $75 billion in exports, abolishes tariffs on 9425 lines of Indian exports, thus accounting to 99% of the Indian exports, and most importantly integrates 27 economies in one single agreement connecting 2 billion people across the globe.
Undoubtedly, India and Europe made this deal to offset Trump tariffs. As the reports suggest, Europe has been experiencing deteriorating economic stability driven by sluggish growth, high debt, and structural weaknesses, with GDP growth potential slowing from ~1% to 0.5% over the next five years. India on the other hand, initiated its GST 2.0 which cushioned the consequences of 50% tariffs on the Indian exports which jeopardized major export industries in India.
So the India–EU Free Trade Agreement talks does bring to the fore the question, 'Have we wimped out on our long-standing “protectionist” position by moving out of the WTO regime?' The answer is not to abandon them, but to transform them. The WTO that was supposed to level the playing field has proved helpless in the face of uneven tariff wars, unilateral sanctions, and geopolitical bullying. In this fractured global order, the strategic FTAs sought by India are not a jettisoning of protectionism but a recalibration of it.
With a few exceptions, the nation is not resisting multilateralism so much as remedying its paralysis by piecemeal market openings and vigilantly protecting its domestic interests. The agreement with Europe thus signals a strategic, not ideological, shift from protectionism to economic resilience in which sovereignty is maintained not through isolation but through diversified engagement.
-Soham Sonar
👍🏻👏🏻
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