top of page
Search

The UK–India Trade Deal Is Live. One Step Stands Between You and Zero Tariffs

The UK–India Trade Deal came into force on 15 July 2026. It is the most comprehensive deal India has ever signed and the UK's biggest since leaving the EU, projected to add £25.5 billion to bilateral trade every year and £4.8 billion to UK GDP.

For North East businesses, the headline is simple: the door to India just opened. But here is the part most coverage skips: you cannot walk through it until you register.


Business audience listens as a speaker presents in a bright conference room with ISS Airview and Proud to Be Part of the Great North banners
Meenu Malhotra DL, Honorary Consul General of India, addressing North East businesses on the UK–India FTA at ISS Airview

The deal is real. The savings are not automatic.

Since 15 July, India has cut or removed tariffs on 90% of its tariff lines for UK goods. Around 64% of UK products became duty-free immediately, roughly £1.9 billion of current exports, rising to 85% over the coming years. India's average tariff on UK goods is falling from 15% to just 3%.


The sector numbers are eye-watering:

  • Whisky and gin: import duties halved from 150% to 75%, and heading to 40% by year ten.

  • Automotive: duties dropping from over 100% to 10% under quota.

  • Manufacturing, medtech, consumer goods and creative industries: broad, meaningful reductions across the board.


And crucially for the North East, the agreement includes a dedicated chapter for small and medium-sized businesses with simpler customs, digital commitments and named contact points designed to help smaller firms actually use it. This is not a deal built only for multinationals. It is built for exactly the ambitious scale-ups the North East does best.


Kim McGuinness speaks at a podium in a bright room, with North East Mayoral banner and International Space Station screen.
We've been building this corridor for years.' Ammar Mirza CBE, Founder & Executive Chairman of ISS Airview, opening the UK–India trade briefing

The catch: no registration, no preferential rate

Here is what stops most businesses before they start. To claim the reduced tariffs, UK exporters must complete a one-time origin registration with HMRC through its Origin Registration portal. Until you do, your goods pay the old rates, even though the deal is technically live.


That single administrative step is the difference between shipping to India at 3% and shipping at 15%. It is free, it is quick, and the businesses that do it first will be quoting better prices to Indian buyers while their competitors are still reading the announcement.


If you take one action this month, make it this: register your business for FTA origin rules now.


Woman speaking with papers beside North East Mayoral Strategic Authority banner for Kim McGuinness, indoors.
Michelle Duggan, Head of Inward Investment at the North East Combined Authority, on backing North East businesses to trade with India.

What North East businesses should do this week

  1. Register with HMRC for preferential origin, the step above. Do it before your next shipment, not after.

  2. Check your tariff lines. Find your product codes and confirm exactly what your India rate is today and how it changes over the next decade.

  3. Get your rules-of-origin evidence in order. Preferential rates depend on proving where your goods are made. This is where most claims fall down.

  4. Build the India-side relationships. A lower tariff means nothing without a buyer, a distributor or a partner on the ground.


Steps one to three are paperwork. Step four is where the real growth is and it is the hardest to do from a desk in the North East.


UK and India flags wave on white poles against a blue sky and clouds.

We have been building this corridor for years

ISS Airview sits inside Newcastle International Airport's Enterprise Zone, with direct connections to over 80 destinations and a presence on both ends of the UK–India corridor. Our team including Sharon Jandu OBE, Director of Partnerships for India has spent years turning trade agreements into actual orders, not headlines.


That work is about to get very practical. The October North East Mayor's Trade Mission to India is now open, taking a delegation of North East businesses straight to the market at the exact moment the FTA takes hold. It is the fastest route from "the deal is live" to "we're trading", first-mover advantage, in person, with the connections already in place.


Don't let the biggest opportunity in a generation become someone else's

Trade deals reward the prepared. The tariffs are falling whether you act or not. The only question is whether your business is registered, ready and building relationships, or watching a competitor win the contracts you could have had.


Register with HMRC this week. Then talk to us about the October mission.


 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page