India keeps UK wines off duty cut list in FTA; offers limited relief on beer

India has excluded British wines from any import duty concessions and is offering only limited relief on UK beer under the recently concluded free trade agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom, a senior official has said.

The FTA, announced on May 6, also excludes several other sensitive agricultural products from tariff reductions. These include dairy products, apples, cheese, oats, and animal and vegetable oils.

“Wine is on the exclusion list, along with several other agricultural products in the trade pact. We are also offering only a limited duty concession on British beer,” the official said as quoted by news agency PTI.

India and the UK concluded negotiations for the agreement earlier this month, a deal that is set to make British Scotch whiskey and cars more affordable in India, while easing duties on Indian exports such as garments and leather products to the UK.

Under the agreement, India will gradually reduce duties on UK whiskey and gin—from the current 150 per cent to 75 per cent, and further down to 40 per cent in the tenth year of the pact.

Excluding wines from duty cuts is a strategically important move, as the European Union is a significant player in that segment. Any concession granted to the UK could have triggered pressure from the EU for similar treatment in ongoing trade talks.

Talks between India and the EU for a separate free trade agreement are already in advanced stages.

Allaying domestic industry concerns, the official said that India’s whiskey makers are unlikely to be adversely affected by the duty cuts on Scotch, since the reduction will be phased over a decade and current import volumes remain low.

Although the India-UK talks, which began in 2022, have officially concluded, the FTA will take time to come into effect—more than 15 months, according to estimates.

Both countries are currently in the process of legal vetting, or "legal scrubbing," of the FTA text.

“Maybe by August-September, the text would be made public,” another official said.

Following the legal review, the FTA will be signed and then go through the ratification process in the UK Parliament, which could take up to a year before the agreement is implemented.