India-EFTA Trade & Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA)

The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), signed in March 2024, came into effect from 1^st October 2025.

About India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA)

The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) is a comprehensive free trade agreement aimed at enhancing market access and simplifying customs procedures to improve trade facilitation.
EFTA nations pledged a binding commitment of $100 billion in FDI over 15 years, aiming to generate one million direct jobs in India.
Tariffs will be eliminated on 92.2% of product categories, covering 99.6% of Indian exports, ensuring broader and more competitive market access.
It also includes 100% of non-agricultural products and tariff concessions on processed agri products. India excluded sensitive sectors such as dairy, soya, coal, and certain farm products to protect domestic livelihoods and reduce trade imbalances.
TEPA promotes Indian service exports, while Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) facilitate professional mobility in nursing, architecture, and accountancy.
Intellectual property provisions under TEPA align with TRIPS standards but prohibit patent evergreening, safeguarding India’s generic medicines industry.

Significance of Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement

For India

Boost to Investments: The India-EFTA free trade agreement includes a binding commitment for EFTA countries to invest $100 billion in India. $50 billion within the first 10 years of the agreement and an additional $50 billion in the subsequent five years.
- The investment of $100 billion from EFTA countries will be from the private sector, not pension funds in the EFTA region.
Employment: The agreement also aims to facilitate the creation of 1 million jobs in India within 15 years from the agreement’s entry into force, resulting from FDI from EFTA states.
Market Access: EFTA is providing commitment to market access in audio-visual services. In terms of treatment, they have committed that they will not discriminate against Indian service providers with EFTA service providers.
- India’s annual services exports are worth $5 billion to EFTA, which is over 4 times the goods exports.
Boost to Atmanirbhar Bharat: TEPA will give impetus to Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat by encouraging domestic manufacturing in sectors such as Infrastructure and Connectivity, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Food Processing, etc.
Model agreement for future FTA’s: EFTA, the first European group to make a deal with investment commitments, might become a model for agreements with developed nations.
- India is negotiating trade agreements with a number of its trading partners such as US, Oman, EU, Peru, Chile, New Zealand and Israel.
Geopolitical Leverage: Strengthens India’s strategic presence in Europe amidst shifting global trade alignments. Counters China’s deeper engagement with Europe through Belt and Road and bilateral FTAs.

For EFTA Countries

Market Access: India is among the world’s largest economy and fastest-growing major market. EFTA provides EFTA countries a foothold in India’s 1.4 billion consumer base.
Boost for Core Export Industries: The pact secures the elimination of high Indian tariffs on key EFTA products. This directly benefits Switzerland’s high-value exports of machinery, pharmaceuticals, and watches, as well as Norway’s and Iceland’s seafood industries, making their products significantly more competitive and opening up substantial new revenue streams.
Protection for Innovation: The agreement establishes robust provisions for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), safeguarding the innovations and patents that are crucial for EFTA’s knowledge-based economies.

European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is an intergovernmental organisation consisting of four major non-EU countries: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

India-EFTA Trade Relations

India is the fifth-largest trading partner of EFTA, following the EU, the US, the UK, and China.
Among EFTA countries, Switzerland is the largest trading partner of India followed by Norway.
The total two-way trade between India and EFTA reached $25 billion, with Indian exports at $2.8 billion and imports at approximately $22 billion.
- Imports: Gold ($20.7 billion in 2021-22), silver, coal, pharmaceuticals, vegetable oil, dairy machinery, medical items, crude and scientific equipment.
- Exports: Chemicals, iron and steel, gold, precious stones, yarns, sports goods, glassware and bulk drugs to these nations.
More than 300 Swiss companies such as Nestle, Holcim, Sulzer, and Novartis, apart from banks such as UBS operate in India, while Indian IT majors TCS, Infosys and HCL work in Switzerland.