Daily Briefing – Thursday 16th July

Good morning and welcome to your Unbound Daily Briefing - here are the topics being covered today:

• UK-India Trade Deal Comes into Effect
• South Korea and India Consider CPTPP Accession
• Britain Unbound Research Gains National Coverage

UK-India Trade Deal Comes into Effect

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the UK and India, which was signed in July 2025, came into effect yesterday - allowing improved access and reduced tariffs with the 5th biggest global economy and a population of 1.2 billion people.

With the EU having concluded its trade negotiations with India earlier this year, and aiming to sign the agreement by the end of 2026 before starting the ratification process, the UK post-Brexit finds itself in the enviable position of giving its business and exporters a multi-year first-mover advantage against their EU competitors - which is truly a Brexit benefit.

When the deal was signed, the UK Business and Trade Department stated that the deal would see "cheaper food, clothing and footwear" for Brits - something that had been stated as an expected outcome of Brexit by former Conservative MP and Britain Unbound patron, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

• Read the official UK government information on the India FTA
• Read the full text of the UK-India FTA

South Korea and India Consider CPTPP Accession

In just the last few days, both South Korea and India have suggested at a senior government level that they will be considering applying to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the 13-country free trade agreement that the UK joined after Brexit.

Already representing 14% of total global trade, and with a number of countries already in the queue, the CPTPP continues to live up to the reputation assigned by some that it is destined to replace the WTO GATT as the gold-standard global free trade agreement.

• Read the article on South Korea intending to apply to join the CPTPP later this year

Britain Unbound Research Gains National Coverage

The research paper written and published by Britain Unbound earlier this week, which calculated a central estimate of a £35-37 billion membership fee for the UK in the EU in 2028, has received national media coverage. The research, which used EU modelling and historical data on member contributions to calculate a hypothetical gross UK contribution were the UK to still be a member or rejoin, has been picked up by both The Sun and The Daily Express this morning.

The EU budget for 2028-2034 is still under negotiation, but has been agreed to be set at around two trillion euros - an amount that the German government recently stated was "unaffordable" and needed to be lowered by as much as 25%. This 7-year budget is more than double the amount when the UK voted to leave the EU, and the contribution would be more than double the £350m a week which was presented on the side of a bus during the Brexit referendum campaign.

• Read the research paper from Britain Unbound, on the hypothetical cost of EU membership in 2028
• Read the article from The Sun, on the Britain Unbound research
• Read the article from The Daily Express, on the Britain Unbound research