With the EU trade deal finally closed in January and formal FTA talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council launched on 5 February, New Delhi has begun to stitch together something it has talked about for years but never quite managed to build: a single economic corridor from Mumbai to Marseille, with lower tariffs and better logistics at each step.

That long arc already has three solid anchor points.

The first sits in Brussels. The India–EU Free Trade Agreement, concluded after nearly two decades of slog, will eliminate duties on about 90 per cent of Indian goods entering the European market, covering more than 99 per cent of export value once fully phased in. Tariffs on key Indian exports like marine products, chemicals, plastics, base metals, footwear and gems are slated to drop to zero over time. On the Indian side, almost all machinery, many chemicals and a large share of pharmaceuticals from Europe move towards very low or zero tariffs, even as autos and sensitive farm products stay protected.

This is not just a trade gain. It effectively pins down the western end of a future corridor: once goods hit an EU port, they can circulate across a single 450 million consumer market with minimal internal friction.

The second anchor lies in the Gulf. India already has a deep trade agreement with the UAE, in force since May 2022, and a fresh CEPA with Oman, initialled in December 2025. Those two deals alone opened faster, cheaper access for Indian jewellery, textiles, engineering goods and food products into two of the region’s most important hubs.

Now New Delhi and the six-nation GCC have gone a step further. On 5 February 2026, India and the GCC signed the Terms of Reference that formally launch negotiations........

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