India must focus more on opportunities instead of tariffs amid geopolitical tensions: Ajay Banga

30 Jan 2026 Evaluate

World Bank Group President Ajay Banga has said that India should ‘think less’ about tariffs and focus more on opportunities, amid concerns over global trade due to geopolitical tensions. Elaborating on India's opportunities in trade deals, he said the country has signed over 100 regional and bilateral pacts over the last 20 year and the recent India-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is an example of that.    

Banga said all trade deals are important. He said ‘if you look at the way trade has changed over last two decades, the global trade has quadrupled, while the share of the emerging markets doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. Therefore, emerging markets like India have now become key components in the global trade’. 

India and the EU announced the successful conclusion of a long-pending FTA, often described by leaders as the ‘mother of all deals’. As part of the deal, 93 per cent of Indian shipments will enjoy duty-free access to the 27-nation bloc, while import of luxury cars and wines from the EU will become less expensive. The agreement, finalised after nearly two decades of negotiations, will create a market of about 2 billion people across the world's fourth-largest economy, India, and the second-largest economic bloc, the EU.   


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