Importing From India to the EU

In April 2026 an Indian incense exporter called Rahul posted about his first shipment to Germany. A customs agent rang him with one line - "Your phytosanitary certificate doesn't match your commercial invoice" - and he had no idea what it meant (Rahul S, LinkedIn, April 2026 (opens in a new tab)). Six hours of phone calls later the shipment sat at the port for four days, extra charges piled up and the German buyer was angry. It cleared, but only just.

Nothing was wrong with the incense. What held it was paper, and that's the honest shape of importing from India into the EU in 2026. The duty question is simpler than people think, because the new FTA isn't in force yet. The rules that actually hold Indian goods at EU borders are about documents and product safety. This page covers both, dated, and tells you where our knowledge stops.

Last researched 28 September 2026 · Next review 24 October 2026 · Written by SourcingFrom

The decision in brief is in the playbook: Exporting and trade → /india/#trade. The Indian export side and transit times are on Exporting from India. This is the bloc page. Duty and EU-wide rules live here, and each member state's page carries only its VAT, labelling language and entry points.

1. The FTA Is Concluded, Not in Force

The EU-India agreement was concluded on 27 January 2026. It's not signed and not in force, and no start date is set. On 11 September 2026 the Commission sent its proposal to sign, COM(2026) 483, to the Council (Council document ST 13066/26 (opens in a new tab)). From there, five steps remain - Council adoption of the signing decision, signature by both sides, European Parliament consent, the Council's decision to conclude, and India's ratification (Commission Q&A (opens in a new tab)).

When it does start, the deal is a big one for the goods most of our readers buy. The EU will fully liberalise 91.4% of its imports from India and partly liberalise another 7.7% (EU chapter summary (opens in a new tab)). We parsed the EU's tariff schedule posted by India's Department of Commerce, and every line we checked in leather and leather goods (chapters 41 and 42), textiles and made-ups (50 to 63) and footwear (64) sits in staging category "A", which means duty-free from day one (Appendix 2A-1, tariff schedule of the EU (opens in a new tab), read 25 September 2026). The text says it becomes final only on signing, so hold that thought until it's signed.

"Early 2027" as a start date floats around in commentary. We haven't found it in any official source, so we don't state it, and neither should your supplier. Price on today's duty.

2. What You Actually Pay Today: MFN or GSP

Today Indian goods pay the EU's MFN rate or, where India still has it, the lower GSP rate. And here's where it gets product-specific. The EU has suspended GSP for India in 12 product sections from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028 (Regulation (EU) 2025/1909 (opens in a new tab)).

The split matters for sourcing decisions. India keeps GSP on apparel and clothing accessories (chapters 61 and 62), leather goods and handbags, and footwear. India lost it on textile materials, which includes home textiles in chapter 63, and on jewellery and precious metals, stone, ceramics and glass, plastics, rubber, chemicals, iron, steel and base metals, machinery and electricals, and vehicles. So a German buyer of cotton T-shirts can still claim GSP on Indian goods, while the same buyer's bedsheets from the same mill pay full MFN until 2029. Is that odd? A bit, but it follows how the EU measures India's competitiveness section by section.

We haven't seen a live TARIC result showing GSP on an Indian apparel line, because the TARIC measures page loads by script and we couldn't read it. So run your own CN code in TARIC (opens in a new tab) before you lodge.

To claim GSP you need a statement on origin from an exporter registered in the EU's Registered Exporter system (Access2Markets, REX (opens in a new tab)). Ask the supplier for its REX number and check it in the public REX validation tool (opens in a new tab). A supplier that quotes a "GSP price" without a REX number can't deliver it.

3. The Paper That Holds Goods

Back to Rahul. His problem was one certificate that didn't match one invoice, and it cost four days. The fix he settled on is the one we'd give you too - triple-check every certificate against the invoice line by line before shipment, pre-clear the documents with your customs agent, and get copies at least 48 hours before arrival (same post (opens in a new tab)).

Food and botanicals make this worse. In our count of EU alerts on Indian goods, 100 of 254 Ayurvedic and botanical notifications were document errors, not contamination (our analysis of RASFF Window (opens in a new tab), queried 23 September 2026). Spices are the exception. There, farm pesticide residues drive 202 of 453 notifications, and the test plan by product is on Quality control.

A second, very common mix-up is duty versus VAT. EU buyers of Indian wooden furniture on forums quote "19% import duty", when 19% is Germany's standard VAT rate (r/logistics, 2024 (opens in a new tab)). Duty and VAT are separate lines, and VAT is set by the member state, which is why it lives on each member page.

4. Product Rules That Stop Goods at the Border

Duty is one question. These rules are what actually hold Indian consignments, and most of them are your liability as importer, not the supplier's.

GPSR. Every consumer product placed on the EU market needs an EU-established economic operator, named with contact details on the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document (Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (opens in a new tab)). Warehouses and 3PLs won't act as that person for you. Sort it before the first order, not at the port.

CE marking and REACH. CE applies only to harmonised groups such as electricals, toys, PPE and machinery, and you keep the technical file for ten years (Your Europe, CE marking (opens in a new tab)). A private lab's "CE certificate" from your supplier doesn't replace that file. REACH covers restricted substances like azo dyes, chromium VI in leather and phthalates. The limits and our test plans built from EU rejection records are on Quality control.

Textile labels. Fibre composition has to be in the language of the member state where the goods are sold (Regulation (EU) 1007/2011 (opens in a new tab)). One label for 27 markets isn't possible, so plan labels by market.

EUDR. The deforestation regulation applies to large and medium operators from 30 December 2026 and to micro and small ones from 30 June 2027. It covers cattle leather, wood furniture, coffee, rubber and soya (DG Environment (opens in a new tab), Regulation (EU) 2025/1093 (opens in a new tab)). India is classed as low risk, which simplifies due diligence but doesn't remove it. If you buy leather goods or wooden furniture, ask your supplier now how it'll give you geolocation data for the hide or the timber. Most won't have an answer yet, and it's better to find that out in September than in December.

CBAM. The definitive regime started on 1 January 2026 for declarants importing more than 50 tonnes a year of steel, aluminium and the other covered goods (DG TAXUD (opens in a new tab)). It applies to Indian steel and aluminium articles whatever the FTA does. We don't publish cost estimates, because the "30 to 40%" figures going around have no source we could find.

5. Buying Terms and the Route In

Indian suppliers tend to price delivered terms (DAP or DDP) well above their own cost, which pushes small EU buyers towards CIF, where destination agent charges then surprise them (EU importers on forums, 2025 to 2026). We'd buy FOB or FCA with your own forwarder. It's usually cheaper and always easier to see. Why is on Exporting from India.

Where you land matters too. On the schedules we read in September 2026, Chennai to Rotterdam took a median of 25 days on a single service, against 33 from Nhava Sheva and 38 from Mundra (carrier schedules, Indicative). If your supplier is in Tamil Nadu, that's a real week saved. Much Indian cargo lands in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany and moves on inside the single market.

If you want to meet Indian exporters without flying to India, the handicrafts export council (EPCH) runs a pavilion at Ambiente in Frankfurt from 29 January to 2 February 2027 (Messe Frankfurt, Ambiente 2027 (opens in a new tab)). A stand there proves a registered exporter, not a manufacturer. How to read one is on India's trade fairs.

6. Your Member State's Page

Duty is the same across the EU, so it lives here. Each member page carries the three things that differ: import VAT, labelling language and national entry points. Open yours - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain or Sweden.

Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein aren't in the EU. They have their own agreement with India, already in force - see EFTA.

Questions Buyers Ask

Next Step

Run your numbers in the landed cost calculator with the EU preset. Every Indian agreement is on India's trade agreements.