NewsBytes

Britain and India clinched a long-coveted free trade pact after tariff turmoil sparked by US President Donald Trump forced the two sides to hasten efforts to increase their trade in whisky, cars and food. The deal, between the world's fifth and sixth-largest economies, has been concluded after three years of stop-start negotiations and aims to increase bilateral trade by a further 25.5 billion pounds ($34 billion) by 2040 with liberal market access and eased trade restrictions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the trade deal was "ambitious and mutually beneficial". British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it would strengthen alliances and reduce trade barriers in this "new era for trade". The deal lowers tariffs on goods such as advanced manufacturing parts and food products, and agrees to quotas on both sides for auto imports. It will allow more British firms to compete for contracts in India, and enable Indian workers to travel to Britain for work, without changing Britain's points-based immigration system. Both countries are also seeking bilateral deals with the United States to remove some of Trump's tariffs that have upended the global trade system, and the resulting turmoil sharpened focus in both London and New Delhi on the need to clinch a UK-India trade deal. The pact marks India opening up its long-guarded markets, including automobiles, setting an early example for the South Asian nation's likely approach to dealing with major Western powers such as the US and the European Union. It also marks Britain's most significant trade deal since it left the European Union in 2020.

Growing numbers of retailers and consumer brands are shifting their focus to Europe and other markets from the United States, as they expect US tariffs to spark price hikes that will drive American consumer demand down. European online fashion retailer Zalando, which sells logistics and software services to other retailers, said it was in talks with prospective new clients looking to expand in the European market. "We see brands and retailers really having a larger focus on Europe as a way to also generate additional demand if it gets more difficult to do this in the US,” Zalando co-CEO David Schroeder said. German clothing brand Hugo Boss has rerouted China-manufactured products to other markets instead of the US, and said there was a ‘notable deterioration’ in US consumer spending in the first quarter due to growing uncertainty over the economy.

The European Commission will next month propose legal measures to phase out the EU's imports of all Russian gas and liquefied natural gas by the end of 2027, it said. The European Union vowed to end its decades-old energy relations with former top gas supplier Russia after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Commission outlined how it plans to do this in a "roadmap" published on Tuesday. The EU executive will present a legal proposal in June to ban remaining Russian gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports under existing contracts by end-2027, it said. The Commission will also propose in June a ban on Russian gas imports under new deals and existing spot contracts by the end of 2025. "It is now time for Europe to completely cut off its energy ties with an unreliable supplier. And energy that comes to our continent should not pay for a war of aggression against Ukraine," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.