India Today – 23 February 2026 – India Today

In 2019, India even walked away from the 15-na- tion Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations, wary of opening sensitive sec- tors such as dairy, and anxious about a further surge in imports, especially from China. Economically, this signalled that India was not ready to sign a mega deal in which it had limited leverage.

Then came CO- VID-19, supply-chain shocks and the brutal reality of a world reorganising around trusted partners. he post-2020 years saw a sharp pivot towards promoting exports. One major reason was that exports, espe- cially in goods, had begun to plateau. The weaknesses in goods exports was masked by surging services exp orts, which became a global success story. Overall, exports account for 21 per cent of India’s GDP but barely 2.5 per cent of global exports, compared with China’s 15 per cent. India’s growth now depends heavily on government capital expenditure and public consumption, with both private investments and ex- ports failing to pull their weight.

The manufacturing sector’s contribution to the GDP has hovered around 17 per cent, well short of the 25 per cent target the Modi government had set a decade ago. he trade agreements with the US and the EU could reshape India’s automotive sector, though the gains will be uneven across vehicle and auto components manufacturers. The backdrop is important: India is the world’s fourth- largest vehicle producer, after China, the US and Japan, but it remains a marginal exporter of finished automobiles to advanced markets.

The real opportu- nity lies in components, where India is competitive on cost and engineering but still far behind the global leaders in scale. The Indian automotive components industry is worth around $80 billion (Rs 7.3 lakh cr.), of which $23 billion (Rs 2.1 lakh cr.) is exported, with Europe and the US being its major markets.

When it comes to the US pact, a long-standing Trump-era irritant—high tariffs on American luxury cars and motorcycles—has finally been addressed. India will cut tariffs on high- end internal combustion engine (ICE) cars to 30 per cent from levels as high as 110 per cent, while duties on Harley-Davidson motor- cycles will be eliminated altogether. Electric vehicles remain excluded, leaving Tesla outside the ambit of concessions.

Tariff reduc- tions on ICE vehicles above 3,000 cc will be phased in over a decade, signalling a calibrated opening up. The India-EU free trade agreement is more ambi- Auto components makers gain the most in the new deals In the Driver’s Seat A Dose of Certainty The future looks brighter for Indian generics and biosimilars ndia’s pharmaceuti- cal industry, often de- scribed as the ‘pharmacy to the world’, stands at a critical inflection point following the signing of trade agreements with the US and the EU.

PM Modi with trading partners (L-R) Christopher Luxon (NZ), Keir Starmer (UK), Ursula von der Leyen (EU), Donald Trump (US), Anthony Albanese (Australia), Haitham bin Tariq Al Said (Oman) TRADE DEALS A HOST OF NEW AGREEMENTS SIGNAL INDIA’S BOLD BUT RISKY GAMBIT TO JOIN THE BIG LEAGUE OF TRADING NATIONS THE GREAT OPENING UP EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW COMMERCE MINISTER PIYUSH GOYAL Rafales: A Whole New Fleet UDAIPUR: FEUDING ROYALS / SARMA VS GOGOI: LINE OF NO CONTROL FEBRUARY 23, 2026 `100 www.indiatoday.in I ndia responds best when in a crisis.

Historically, that’s when it has initiated big reforms. The econo- mic reforms of 1991, which dismantled the licence raj and ended an era of sluggish growth, were triggered by a balance of payments crisis. Now, geopoli tical turmoil as well as US president Donald Trump’s onslaught on the old international trading order with weaponised tariffs have pushed the world into a reset. For India, it brings a second 1991 moment.

We are calling it ‘The Great Open- ing Up’, a policy turn that picks up the unfinished busi- ness of liberalisation. Even after three decades of reforms, the ghosts of protectionism haunt our political economy. Till the last decade, our reflex instinct toward free trade remai ned hesitant, even defensive. Whenever the chance to enter large trade blocs came, we recoiled. In 2019, India withdrew at the last minute from the Regional Compre- hensive Economic Partnership; we didn’t even pursue the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The watchword was caution, bordering on avoidance. The post-pandemic convulsions in world trade have forced us to evolve. High tariff walls, a relic of the pre-1991 days of import substitution, are finally being dis man tled through a series of trade agreements. The headline events are expansive deals with the US and the European Union (EU).

The American agreement ends a year of tariff turbulence that had seen duties surge sharply. These come down from 50 to 18 per cent. There’s one key clause: no Russian oil. In the “mother of all deals” with the EU, tariffs go to zero nearly wholesale. Together, they open up two markets with a combined GDP of over $50 trillion.

Before that came Australia, the UAE, Oman, the UK, New Zealand. In the works are deals with Cana- da, the Gulf bloc and Latin America’s Mer- cosur. Already covering 40-plus developed economies, this marks a strategic pivot for India, whose current share of global trade is a woeful 2.5 per cent. The passage is not devoid of legitimate points of conten- tion.

But what the Narendra Modi government is attempt- ing is a reinvention of swadeshi. Self-reliance, evoked in the slogan ‘Make in India’, is being turned from a self-limiting obsession to one that can galvanise our productive capac- ity: a call to ‘Make for the World’. The logic is compelling.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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