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According to the draft India-EU Free Trade Agreement text, reported on 13 September 2026, the EU gives India country-specific tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) of 1,641,470 tonnes of steel a year.
The quota has two parts: 946,616 tonnes under the MFN component and 694,853 tonnes under the FTA component.
It matters because the EU's new Steel Regulation (in force since 1 July 2026) charges a 50% duty on steel imported outside the quotas. India exports about 4 million tonnes of steel a year to the EU.
The largest quota is for non-alloy and other alloy hot-rolled sheets and strips: 509,605 tonnes.
Quotas will be reviewed one year after implementation and every five years after that. The deal also protects India if the EU later gives another FTA partner better access.
A TRQ lets a set quantity of a product enter at a zero or low tariff. Anything above that quantity pays a much higher tariff (50% for EU steel). It gives exporters assured access while protecting domestic industry.
Simple Analogy: Like a free baggage allowance: pay extra only beyond the limit.
Limits a safeguard measure to eight years in total. That is why the EU's 2018 steel safeguard had to end in June 2026 and was replaced by a permanent TRQ regime.
Sets 18.3 Mt of duty-free quotas, a 50% out-of-quota duty and a melt-and-pour rule, under which steel's origin is where it was first melted and poured.
Definitive phase since 1 January 2026 for cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen. The FTA quota does not exempt Indian steel from CBAM costs.
EU imposes temporary safeguard measures on steel imports
EU CBAM enters its definitive phase
India-EU FTA negotiations concluded
EU steel safeguard expires after the WTO's eight-year maximum
New EU Steel Regulation takes effect
Reports on the draft FTA text reveal India's 1.64 Mt steel quota
GS Paper II > Bilateral agreements (India-EU); GS Paper III > External trade, WTO
General Awareness > Economy > Trade agreements
Tariff-rate quota: a low or zero tariff up to a set volume, and a higher tariff beyond it.
An origin rule that treats steel as coming from the country where it was first melted and poured.
The EU's carbon border levy on the emissions embedded in imports such as steel.