— By Plasteurope.com staff — 

The UK-India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) entered into force on 15 July 2026, opening the way for extensive tariff reductions and closer bilateral investment ties between the countries.

The pact was signed on 24 July 2025. The UK government estimates that it could increase bilateral trade by GBP 25.5 bn annually in the long term, while adding GBP 4.8 bn to UK GDP and GBP 5.1 bn to Indian GDP each year.

The agreement grants duty-free access to nearly 99% of Indian exports to the UK, while India is to remove or reduce levies on 90% of its tariff lines. At the start of the agreement, India immediately removed tariffs on 64% of its tariff lines for UK goods, with the duty-free share scheduled to rise to 85% over 10 years, according to the UK Department for Business and Trade.

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Plastics and organic chemicals are among the labour-intensive Indian industries expected to gain from improved access to the UK market. The UK government has not provided a polymer-specific forecast, although it expects imports from India across the broader chemical, rubber, and plastic-products sector to rise by around 24% in the long term. However, India has excluded certain “critical polymers” and related monofilaments from its tariff concessions, preserving protection for strategically important domestic production.

Actual gains are to depend partly on companies meeting origin and customs-documentation requirements. Trade experts have also cautioned that existing trade-remedy measures and other non-tariff barriers could limit the agreement’s effect in some sectors.

The British Plastics Federation (BPF, London; www.bpf.co.uk) welcomed the agreement as a “very positive step”, saying it hoped the pact would create opportunities for companies across the UK plastics supply chain to increase exports to India and benefit from stronger bilateral trade.