India Faces 5-Yearly Pressure to Further Open Markets Under UK Trade Deal
India’s trade agreement with the United Kingdom includes a built-in mechanism to reopen negotiations every five years, allowing the UK to push for further liberalisation of India’s goods and services markets--including sectors not presently covered under the current treaty.
“...review the implementation of this Agreement with a view to further facilitating trade between the Parties through, among other things, further liberalisation of market access...”
(UK–India CETA, Chapter 30, Article 30.5.2)
This review clause activates every five years after the agreement enters into force and explicitly allows re-opening of negotiations on unresolved or deferred issues.
Trade experts say such clauses can function as soft leverage mechanisms, enabling the UK to revisit politically sensitive areas like digital trade, data localisation, IP enforcement, or investment protection, which were excluded or watered down in the final agreement.
“The five-year review clause is a backdoor to future concessions. It keeps politically difficult issues alive and rolling,” said a former Indian FTA negotiator.
While review clauses are not uncommon in modern trade agreements, their scope varies. In the CETA’s case, the clause is forward-looking and market-opening by design, with a goal of expanding “trade liberalisation,” rather than merely assessing outcomes or dispute resolution.
There is no clause allowing India to freeze or permanently exclude areas from future review. This means that pressure points such as TRIPS-plus IP standards or foreign digital governance demands may resurface as formal agenda items at the five-year mark.
Source: UK–India CETA, Chapter 30 – Final Provisions (24 July 2025)
The review mechanism is binding and recurring; first round of review due in 2030