Ode to joy! World's got just a bit bigger

There are good reasons to have the band bajao Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Not just because it's Europe's official anthem, but also because the India-EU FTA is, indeed, an 'ode to joy'. India enjoys a surplus in both goods and services trade, and there is no strong-arm tactics - like those used by you-know-who - being used to balance them. The EU is India's largest trading partner, while India sits low among the bloc's list of import destinations. The latter should be able to hold on to its advantage while it penetrates more of the EU market. Machinery finds itself among the top trade category in both directions. This can be leveraged for bigger Indian play in global manufacturing. Aerospace, specifically, holds out immense potential to develop indigenous capacity for both commercial and strategic use, and re-export.

But the true significance of the deal lies in papering over differences articulated by both sides in multilateral negotiations over how the 'global north' and 'south' should conduct business with each other. India has often led the resistance by developing economies to perceived trade-distorting conditions the EU has championed. These cover a wide array of issues, from protecting agriculture to sharing costs of climate mitigation and IPR. The FTA provides a prototype for a rules-based trading system when the current era of bilateralism yields to a multilateral order again. It opens up pathways for trade diversification for countries at the receiving end of Trump's protectionist fatwas.

India now has a mechanism to engage with Europe - including the previous deal with Britain - on terms of its choosing. This is an opportunity to correct the historical perversion in its trade with the continent. Urgency lent by Trump tariffs can be put to good use in establishing a new trade order not held hostage by US overconsumption and Chinese overproduction. Getting the EU to break ranks with the US, and with no prospect of a free trade deal with China, India has improved its negotiating capability with its other leading trade partners.