Model answer & approach
- The tariff threats have pushed India and the European Union closer. Evaluate the India-EU partnership. (Answer in 250 words)
Introduction
American tariffs have lowered the political price of an India-EU bargain on both sides, but a partnership built on a shared irritant is not yet a strategic partnership. Two structural fault lines remain.
Body
1. The catalyst: Washington's reciprocal tariffs of 2025, rising to fifty per cent on Indian goods including a penalty tied to Russian oil, and a fifteen per cent baseline on EU goods, gave both sides the same problem.
2. The response: the College of Commissioners travelled to New Delhi in February 2025, an unprecedented visit, committing to conclude the free trade agreement relaunched in 2022 after its 2013 collapse.
3. The existing scaffolding: a strategic partnership since 2004, the Trade and Technology Council of 2022 — the EU's only such body outside the United States — and the Connectivity Partnership of 2021.
4. The substance: the EU is India's largest goods trading partner at roughly 130 billion dollars, with about 6,000 European firms in India, a maritime security dialogue, joint naval exercises and cooperation on semiconductors and green hydrogen.
5. Fault line one, climate trade: the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, effective from 2026, and the deforestation regulation are read in India as unilateral protectionism, and India has signalled rebalancing measures.
6. Fault line two, Russia: EU sanctions packages targeting Russian-linked refining in India collide with India's refusal to align on Ukraine.
7. The residual asymmetry: European demands on labour, sustainability and data adequacy meet Indian sensitivities on dairy, autos and wines.
Conclusion
Evaluated honestly, this is a convergence of convenience with real strategic potential. Concluding the free trade agreement would make it structural; if it slips again, the tariff-driven warmth will read as tactical in hindsight.
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