The recently signed trade pact with the United Kingdom (UK) will act as a crucial "stepping stone" and a benchmark for the "high quality" agreements India intends to pursue, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said. Calling it a "win win" for both nations, Goyal argued that the deal would also enhance India's credibility in the global trade arena.

The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), signed on July 24 after three-and-a-half years of negotiations, signals that India is ready to face competition and shed its reputation as a high-tariff economy - a "tariff king", as the United States (US) has often labelled it. The pact will cut India's applied tradeweighted average tariff on goods imports from the UK from 15 per cent to 3 per cent.