Amid tensions over steel exports to the European Union due to regulations such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), India has secured 1.64 million tonnes of steel export quota, across 16 categories, including specialised items like metallic coated sheets and stainless hot-rolled quarto plates, to the European Union under the free trade agreement, as per the draft India-EU deal released by Brussels.The total country-specific quota falls under two parts, whereby the FTA component comes in at 0.69 million tonnes and the most favoured nation component, available to all partner countries, stands at 0.95 million tonnes. This means that only the FTA component of the quota is assured and India’s products will have to compete with other countries in the rest of the categories. India’s steel exports to the EU, which currently stand at 4 million tonnes.The TRQs follow the European Union’s Steel Overcapacity Regulation, which came into force on July 1 this year. It is aimed at ensuring protection for the EU’s steel industry against the effects of global overcapacity. It sets free-of-duty quotas at 18.3 million tonnes, with a 50 per cent duty for out-of-quota imports and a melt-and-pour regime to enhance transparency.According to an Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) note, shifting toward higher-value-added steel products would reduce the applicable CBAM tax burden and improve India’s competitive position in the EU market. India has received quotas on several value-added categories too.“This structural transition should be supported by industrial policies that integrate Production Linked Incentives (PLI) with dedicated research and development funding. Targeted financial and technical assistance, including concessional financing, access to clean technology, and investment guarantees, is essential to ease the disproportionate compliance burden on MSMEs,” the ICRIER note said.Automobile quotaThe draft also showed that the EU has won a first-year tariff-rate quota of 100,000 completely built-up internal-combustion and non-plug-in hybrid cars, which is almost six times current imports. India imported only 17,191 cars from the EU in 2025. The quota rises to 160,000 cars by the 10th year.However, the concession applies only to cars priced above €15,000. For cars priced between €15,000 and €35,000, the in-quota duty falls from 110% to 35% in the first year and down to 10% in the 5th year of the deal coming into effect. To protect Indian car manufacturers, India has given no concession to cars below €15,000.Story continues below this adFor cars priced above €35,000, tariffs decline from 66% to 30% in the first year to 10% over the same period. The quota is divided among three price bands, with 43,000 units reserved for cars priced above €50,000 from Year 5 onward.Think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said that the EU becomes the second major trade partner after the United Kingdom to secure automotive tariff concessions from India under an FTA. Having established these precedents, India should soon receive similar demands for preferential market access and generous TRQs from other key trade partners such as Japan and South Korea, the New Delhi-based think tank said.EV quotaOn electric vehicles (EVs), the draft deal said that concessions on battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and cars using other technologies beginning in the 5th year apply only to vehicles priced at €20,000 or more. Their Completely Built Unit (CBU) quota starts at 20,000 cars in the fifth year, rises to 50,000 in the 10th year and reaches 90,000 from the 14th year onward. Electric and other eligible cars priced below €20,000 receive no concession.The European Commission on Friday forwarded its proposal for the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union and India to the European Council (EC), a clear indication that the deal could be officially signed soon.Story continues below this ad“If authorised by the Council, this will be the largest trade agreement ever concluded by both the EU and India. Once adopted and entered into force, the agreement will improve market access, reduce tariffs, tackle unnecessary trade barriers, as well as provide predictable rules for trade and investment between the EU and India,” the European Union said in a statement.