LONDON (AP) — Britain and India announced Tuesday that they have agreed on a hard-wrought free trade agreement that will slash tariffs on products including Scotch whisky and English gin shipped to India and Indian food and spices sent to the U.K.
The deal comes more than three years after negotiations started — and stalled — under a previous British government.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X that the deal was “ambitious and mutually beneficial.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a “landmark.”
“This is the biggest trade deal that we the U.K. have done since we left the EU, and it’s the most ambitious trade deal that India has ever done," Starmer said.
The U.K. government said the deal will reduce Indian import taxes on British goods including whisky, cosmetics, medical devices, cars, airplane parts and lamb. Whisky and gin tariffs will be halved from 150% to 75% before falling to 40% by year 10 of the deal. Automotive tariffs will fall from over 100% to 10% under a quota.
India's Trade Ministry said 99% of Indian exports would face no import duty under the deal, which applies to products including textiles, marine products, leather, footwear, toys, gems and jewelry.
“This brings us closer to our goal of becoming a global economic powerhouse. It protects our core interests while opening doors to India’s greater participation in global value chains,” Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Modi’s office said the agreement covered trade in both goods and services, and would “unlock new potential for the two nations to jointly develop products and services for global markets.”
Britain said the deal is expected to increase bilateral trade by 25.5 billion pounds ($34 billion) a year from 2040 and add almost 5 billion pounds ($6.7 billion) a year to the British economy.
Mark Kent, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, said the deal would be “transformational” for the industry. India, a country of 1.4 billion people, is the world’s largest whisky market, and Kent said the agreement had “the potential to increase Scotch whisky exports to India by 1 billion pounds over the next five years.”
The issue of visas for Indian nationals was a sticking point in the talks. The British government is under pressure to cut immigrant numbers — pressure heightened by the success of anti-immigrant party Reform UK in local elections in England last week.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the trade deal had “no impact on the immigration system,” but made “modest changes to business mobility.”
The agreement adds Indian musicians, chefs and yoga instructors to the groups who can apply for U.K. visas, and includes a three-year exemption from British social security contributions for Indian workers in the U.K. The same exemption will apply to British workers in India.
The deal, which must be ratified by both countries, comes as countries around the world scramble to strike trade deals to make up for tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on America's trading partners.
Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of employers' organization the Confederation of British Industry, said the trade deal between India and Britain — the world's fifth- and sixth-largest economies — was a “beacon of hope amidst the specter of protectionism."
U.K.-India trade negotiations began long before Trump's re-election. Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by Diwali in October of that year.
The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024.
Modi was re-elected, and Britain replaced the Conservative government with one led by Starmer’s Labour Party.
The two leaders spoke by phone on Tuesday, and Modi said he had invited Starmer to visit India soon. Starmer's office said he would go there “at the earliest opportunity.”
Roy reported from New Delhi.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for the ceremonial reception of the visiting Angol's President João Lourenco at the Indian presidential palace in New Delhi, India, Saturday, May 3, 2025.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session in parliament in London, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.
In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.
Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.
Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.
But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.
More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.
A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
