India Shipping News Exclusive Interview with Scott Wang, Vice President, Asia Pacific, WTCA, and Badal Saboo, Business Development Lead, India & Asia Pacific, WTCA
India–UK CETA has opened a significant new chapter in bilateral trade, creating wider market-access opportunities for Indian exporters while also raising the bar on compliance, quality, traceability and supply-chain efficiency. As Indian businesses look to translate preferential access into sustainable commercial growth, the focus is increasingly shifting from tariff concessions to the ability to meet international standards, build trusted partnerships and develop resilient global supply chains.
In an exclusive interview with India Shipping News, Mr. Scott Wang, Vice President, Asia Pacific, World Trade Centers Association (WTCA), and Mr. Badal Saboo, Business Development Lead, India & Asia Pacific, WTCA, share their perspectives on how Indian businesses—particularly MSMEs—can leverage the India–UK CETA, identify emerging sectoral opportunities and strengthen their position in global value chains.
The WTCA leaders discuss the sectors with the greatest potential, the importance of rules of origin and sustainability compliance, practical strategies for MSMEs entering the UK market, and India’s growing role as a manufacturing, sourcing and logistics hub. They also highlight the critical role of multimodal connectivity, digital trade documentation, customs efficiency and predictable logistics in converting market access into actual trade flows.
With the WTCA network spanning more than 300 licensed locations across nearly 100 countries and territories, the interview also explores how trusted local networks, trade missions, matchmaking and market intelligence can help Indian companies move beyond a single export market and establish a broader international footprint.
As Mr. Wang emphasises, India’s opportunity is considerable—but market access alone will not create globally competitive companies. Indian businesses will increasingly need to compete on productivity, quality, technology, compliance and reliability, while moving from simply exporting products to building lasting positions within global value chains.
Excerpts from an Interview
Questions
Q. From your perspective, what fundamentally changes for Indian businesses now that the India–UK CETA has entered into force?
Beyond the headline tariff reductions, what are the most significant commercial opportunities that Indian exporters and businesses should be looking at immediately? Do you believe Indian companies are adequately prepared to take advantage of the agreement?
Scott: The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between India and the United Kingdom (India-UK CETA), signed on July 24, 2025 in London, seeks to enhance bilateral trade to US $120 billion by 2030 by eliminating tariffs on 90% to 99% of goods and liberalizing key services sectors, improving market access, and increasing investment flows between the two nations. It serves not just as policy instruments; they act as strategic frameworks for establishing resilient and reliable trade routes. They also open up new opportunities for collaboration, technology exchange, and participation in value chains across continents.
Despite the tremendous opportunity, there are many challenges for Indian companies in particular SMEs. They’ll need to enhance their awareness and understanding of the FTAs and the requirements. To crack the maze of rules of origin, they’ll need to optimize operation in supply chain management, standardize documentation, deal with the increased cost of the new proceedings, and identify proper partners and agencies for assistances.
Q. Which Indian sectors are best positioned to benefit from CETA over the next three to five years?
Badal: The immediate beneficiaries are the established sectors: textiles and apparel, leather, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, and processed foods. The larger opportunity, which many emerging exporters miss, sits one level deeper: sustainable textiles, technical fabrics, precision-engineered components, EV supply chains, healthcare products and technology-enabled services, where India can compete on specialised capability rather than cost alone.
Q. What should exporters do to meet UK standards on origin, sustainability and traceability?
Badal: Compliance must be designed into the product and business model from day one, not added after the first order arrives. Exporters should map product standards, labelling, testing, rules-of-origin documentation and traceability requirements before quoting a price.
The gaps I see most often among Indian MSMEs are fragmented documentation, limited traceability beyond the first-tier supplier and excessive dependence on a single overseas agent instead of developing direct market understanding. The practical response is a readiness audit, followed by an initial pilot shipment before committing to volume. Where individual MSMEs cannot justify the full cost of testing and compliance, export clusters and industry associations can help pool specialist resources. In a developed market such as the UK, compliance is not merely an overhead: it is what earns and retains a buyer’s trust.
Q. What practical steps should an MSME take when entering the UK market for the first time?
Badal: Start by narrowing the target: one product, one customer segment and one route to market where the business has a genuine advantage, not “the UK” as one undifferentiated opportunity. Then validate the proposition by speaking directly with prospective buyers, distributors and local market experts. Desk research alone will not reveal how purchasing decisions are actually made.
Before scaling, prepare a complete landed-cost model covering duties, freight, certification, distributor margins, returns and working capital. A product that appears competitive at the factory gate may not remain so after these costs are included. Begin with a pilot order or limited regional partnership, independently verify counterparties, and clearly document payment terms, exclusivity, performance obligations and intellectual-property protection. The objective is not one successful shipment; it is a repeatable and sustainable position in the market.
Q. Global supply chains are being reshaped by geopolitical developments, diversification strategies and the growing emphasis on resilience. How do you see India’s position evolving as a manufacturing, sourcing and logistics hub for global companies?
Could the India–UK CETA also encourage British and other international companies to use India as part of their wider Asia-Pacific supply-chain strategy?
Scott: Amid geopolitical developments, diversification strategies and the growing emphasis on resilience, India has been increasingly considered as a first-choice manufacturing and sourcing destination in key sectors. Electronics production has grown nearly six-fold over the past decade. Mobile phone exports crossed approximately US $13.5 billion in just the first half of fiscal 2025-26. Pharmaceutical exports surpassed US $30 billion. The auto component industry generated a trade surplus for the second consecutive year. These numbers reflect learning curves, supplier ecosystem development, and policy continuity working together. FTAs such as India-UK CETA can certainly create incentives for further FDIs, including those from UK and other European countries, in these key sectors. India’s election as Vice-Chair of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework Supply Chain Council signals formal international recognition of its strategic role in regional trade resilience.
Q. From a trade facilitation perspective, how important will logistics, multimodal connectivity, digital trade documentation, customs efficiency and reliable supply-chain infrastructure be in determining whether Indian exporters can fully capture the benefits of the CETA?
What improvements would you like to see in India’s trade ecosystem to make exports more competitive and predictable?
Scott: CETA creates the market-access opportunity, but logistics and trade facilitation will determine how much of that opportunity Indian exporters can actually convert into business. CETA’s customs chapter calls for electronic declarations and payments, automated risk management, interoperable electronic customs systems. The digital-trade provisions also support electronic trade documents and their legal equivalence with paper documents where possible. These developments will help but India’s trade ecosystem must lower the transaction-cost barrier. The real measure of success will be whether an Indian SME can move a shipment from its factory to a UK customer quickly, digitally, transparently and with a predictable landed cost and delivery date. As such there are a number of areas India can improve such as end-to-end multi-modal connectivity among manufacturing clusters, logistics parks, rail freight corridors, airports and seaports, the transparency and predictability of customs, and reliability of supply chain such as quality, product mix and delivery accuracy.
Q. How can the WTCA network help Indian companies build a broader international footprint?
Badal: Online research can take a company only so far. What moves business forward is trusted local access, and that is the core value of the World Trade Center network: more than 300 licensed locations across nearly 100 countries and territories, including established operations such as WTC Mumbai and WTC Bengaluru in India, connecting businesses with credible buyers, distributors, advisers and commercial ecosystems on the ground.
Beyond introductions, individual WTC operations organise inbound and outbound trade missions, business delegations and sector-focused programmes that help companies understand how one market differs from another. A proposition that works in the UK may require considerable adaptation for the Middle East or Southeast Asia.
For an Indian MSME, this access does not replace commercial preparation or close the transaction on its behalf, but it can remove much of the isolation and guesswork involved in entering a new market. CETA can be the opening corridor; the wider WTC network can help companies build relationships beyond that corridor and develop a broader international footprint.
Q. Looking beyond the India–UK CETA, what is your assessment of India’s prospects in the rapidly evolving global trade landscape?
Scott: With India pursuing greater integration with major economies and supply chains diversifying across Asia, Europe and other markets, what should Indian businesses prioritise over the next five years if they want to become globally competitive and build sustainable international businesses?
India has emerged as the fastest growing major economy and is projected to become the third largest economy in the world by 2030. Given India’s strength in labor abundance, rapidly improving infrastructure, and fast economic/trade integration with other major trading powerhouse in the world through FTAs and other trade facilitation arrangements, there is great opportunity for India to expand its trade presence in the global landscape and make it one of the driving forces to achieve its development goal. On the other side market access alone will not create globally competitive companies. Over the next five years, Indian businesses need to move from competing primarily on cost to competing on productivity, quality, technology, compliance and reliability — and from simply exporting products to building lasting positions in global value chains.
The global World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) network could be a great resource of connectivity and assistance to help companies of all sizes gain from FTAs such as CETA through its core services such as trade information, trade education, inbound and outbound trade missions, as well as matchmaking. From evaluating markets to identifying strategic sectors for business, offering international legal and fiscal benchmarking services, to ensuring that industry challenges are addressed, the WTCA and its WTC operations in India such as WTC Mumbai and WTC Bengaluru are playing a pivotal role in helping Indian companies avail the benefits of FTAs.
Closing Question
Is there one key message you would like to convey to Indian exporters, MSMEs and the wider trade and logistics community regarding the opportunity that the India–UK CETA presents?
Scott: India has a historic opportunity as global supply chains diversify and its network of trade agreements expands. WTCA will work closely with its extensive and growing membership base in India and leverage its global connectivity, state-of-the-art business facilities and top-notch trade services capability to contribute to India’s development by strengthening international collaboration and expanding trade and investment in both directions.
