India and UK agree yearly data checks on trade pact as Goyal sets 2030 target

India and the United Kingdom have agreed to swap data every year on how often businesses use their new trade agreement, as the two governments met on Monday for the first time since the deal took effect.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Jonathan Reynolds, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, co-chaired the 16th meeting of the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) in New Delhi on 12 October. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) entered into force on 15 July.

In their joint statement, the ministers called the agreement “the beginning, not the end” of their shared ambition.

What the two sides agreed

The data exchange will start one year after the agreement came into force. It will cover how often exporters claim the lower tariffs, along with feedback from businesses on what is working and where they need help, with a focus on small and medium firms.

The ministers also agreed to set up the committees and working groups the agreement calls for, name government contact points for each chapter, and ask officials to resolve implementation problems quickly. They listed services, innovation, government procurement, science and technology, and gender as areas for closer work.

The statement offered early examples of the deal in use. On the day it took effect, Indian exporters sent more than 50 consignments to the UK, including smartphones, machinery, gold jewellery, garments, tea and coffee. Joha rice from Assam was shipped to the UK for the first time. In the other direction, the first tariff-free Scottish salmon reached India within two weeks, Scotch whisky has come in at lower duties, and the first cars under the tariff-rate quota have been imported.

Goyal’s 2030 target

Speaking at the business plenary that followed, Goyal urged companies in both countries to turn the agreement into trade, investment and jobs.

Our shared ambition is to double bilateral trade by 2030. That’s barely four and a half years away.

He named five areas for partnership: infrastructure and clean energy, advanced manufacturing and supply chains, technology and research, financial services linking the City of London with GIFT City in Gujarat, and healthcare and consumer goods. He said the Double Contribution Convention on social security, which took effect alongside the trade deal, could help both economies by making services more competitively priced.

Reynolds said the deal had been in force for almost 100 days and that its success would depend on businesses using it to grow exports, investment and partnerships.

Trade in goods and services between the two countries stood at £48.4 billion in the four quarters to March 2026, up 5.7% on a year earlier, according to UK government data.

What comes next

The India-UK Science and Innovation Council met on the same day, and a delegation of seven mayors and a combined authority leader from the North of England was in India alongside the ministers. The 17th JETCO will be held in the UK in 2027.