NEW DELHI, July 5 -- The paperwork that makes a trade deal real arrived Friday. India's Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs notified the rules of origin for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between India and the United Kingdom, the final administrative step before the pact takes force on July 15 and opens duty-free access for Indian exporters across nearly the entire British market.

The notification is not the event most people watched - that was the initial signing in July 2025, when Prime Ministers Modi and Starmer stood together and described the agreement as historic, which by most measures it is. What CBIC issued on Friday was the operational machinery: the rules that tell an exporter in Surat or Chennai or Agr...