India-UK deal to give Indian market access at lower tariff, says JLR
Jaguar Land Rover on Thursday said the India-UK free trade agreement would help the marquee automaker to access lower tariffs in India for its luxury models.
Under the India-UK FTA, India will reduce tariffs on automotive imports from about 110 per cent to 10 per cent under quotas on both sides, benefiting companies such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
"We welcome this free trade agreement between the UK and India, which over time will deliver reduced tariff access to the Indian car market for JLR's luxury vehicles," a company spokesperson said in a statement. India is an important market for the company's British-built products and represents significant future growth opportunities, the spokesperson added. In a separate query regarding a change in pricing of imported products into the Indian market, a UK-based spokesperson said: "No decisions have been made on pricing."
Around 60 per cent of the cars JLR sells in India, including popular models in the Range Rover portfolio - Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Velar and Evoque - are already locally produced in India through the CKD (completely knocked down) route, attracting a lower tax. Defender, which is manufactured in Slovakia, falls outside the scope of this FTA and is therefore not impacted. Only a limited number of high-value SV models are currently exported from the UK to India and therefore in scope of the FTA, the spokesperson stated.
JLR Chief Commercial Officer Lennard Hoornik had earlier stated that the agreement would help in removing obstacles in doing business and help the automaker to enhance its focus on the Indian market.
JLR is owned by Mumbai-headquartered Tata Motors. The world's fifth and sixth-largest economies concluded the trade deal after three years of on-and-off negotiations. The pact lowers tariffs on 99 per cent of Indian goods to zero in the UK market while allowing Indian workers to travel to the UK for work without changing Britain's point-based immigration system. The talks for the pact started in January 2022. Both sides held 14 rounds of talks for the conclusion of the talks. In FTAs, two countries either eliminate or significantly reduce customs duties on the maximum goods traded between them. They also ease norms for promoting trade in services and bilateral investments. India's exports to the UK rose by 12.6 per cent to USD 14.5 billion, while imports grew by 2.3 per cent to USD 8.6 billion in 2024-25.
The bilateral trade between India and the UK increased to USD 21.34 billion in 2023-24 from USD 20.36 billion in 2022-23.
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