India’s three trade deals in the offing

Good morning. India’s anti-graft agency has filed a police complaint against Madhabi Puri Buch, who was chair of the markets regulator until her term ended three days ago. The charges are a bit puzzling given they’re about a 30-year-old case — I’ll definitely be keeping an eye.

In today’s newsletter, Amazon has to pay for copying the brand logo of Beverly Hills Polo Association. But first, there is no such thing as too many trade deals.

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Strike a deal. Or three

‘Tis the season for trade deals. Yesterday, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal left for the US to start talks on the bilateral trade deal that was announced during Narendra Modi’s meeting with Donald Trump. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in India and talked about the prospect of a free trade deal that will be the largest one of its kind anywhere in the world. India and the UK have also resumed trade talks after on-and-off negotiations since 2022. 

These agreements are significant. India is a country with one of the world’s highest tariffs and the successful culmination of these negotiations will mean that the Indian market opens up to more foreign products. This is great news for consumers, who will have access to a wider array of products from major markets abroad without paying a huge premium. The impact on Indian manufacturing is less favourable though, as made in — and for — India products will have to compete on both quality and price.  

The deal with the US, which is our second largest trading partner after China, is the most important one for India at the moment. The deal will also (hopefully) secure the economy from Trump’s whimsical tariff announcements. India is looking to stitch this up before the end of the year. The UK trade deal is stuck on issues including student visas and duties on scotch whisky. Last week’s talks were the first since Britain’s Labour government took office, and the new business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds said securing a deal was a top priority for his government. The talks with the EU are in its early stages. Even though von der Leyen expressed hopes of sealing an agreement before the end of the year, that looks unlikely since this is a complicated negotiation involving various entities in the bloc and not of the highest priority currently for India’s already stretched commerce ministry.

A significant reason for the flurry of activity on the trade deal front is Trump’s love of tariffs. While his initial targets were Canada, China and Mexico, he has now expanded his tariff threats to other regions, including the EU. For Europe and the UK, India offers the opportunity of a sizeable market without the heightened geopolitical complexities of China. This puts Goyal’s team in a comfortable position. However, negotiations with the US will be more challenging, people with knowledge of the discussions have told me, especially since Trump will want to showcase the deal as a big win for his administration. 

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4. China will consider a proposal to lower the marriage age to help reverse its falling birth rates.

5. Pierce Brosnan has got a licence to kiln. (Love this headline from this week’s HTSI. I’m a sucker for a good pun)

Wrong copy

The Delhi High court on Friday ordered Amazon Technologies, a unit of the American ecommerce group, to pay $39mn to Lifestyle Equities for infringement of their copyright to the logo of the apparel brand, Beverly Hills Polo Club. The amount is one of the more substantial damages that an Indian court has imposed on a US company. Lifestyle Equities’ complaint was that Amazon was selling its own brand of T-shirts, under the name “Symbol” (ironic?), with a logo that was very similar to that of Beverly Hills Polo Club, for a very low price. 

In its judgment, the court said that “one does need to be Sherlock Holmes” to find the differences in the horse and polo player in both the brands and concluded that “once apparel products bearing such near identical logos are available to consumers, the market for the original products at full price is lost”. 

Indian courts have been seeing a slew* of intellectual property rights cases, especially in these past few years. For smaller businesses, using logos similar to those from big brands is an easy way to get some early sales, especially on ecommerce platforms where customers’ ability to scrutinise the genuineness of the products is limited. That Amazon, a company valued at nearly $200tn, was indulging in this practice makes it an even more serious matter. More significantly, the court called out Amazon for obfuscating liability by operating through multiple entities and roles. In this case, separately registered units of Amazon were operating as brand owner, retailer and intermediary. 

As the Indian market matures and more global brands come in (thanks to all the trade deals!), the establishment of a fair redressal mechanism for business disputes becomes imperative. The Delhi court’s judgment sets the tone for it.

(*Aside — the other intellectual property cases that are coming up in courts these days are Bollywood stars such as Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff seeking to secure the rights to their identity. This includes their distinctive styles of dialogue delivery and mannerism, including the words “bhidu” in Shroff’s case and “jhakaas” in Kapoor’s.) 

Go figure

Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the important economic metrics that came out in the past few days.

My mantra

“We all want to balance everything in life. I believe there are three layers of productivity. First is work, second is family and third is the individual. And we should seek to optimise everything we do in all three buckets”

— Yatin Shah, co-founder of 360 ONE

Each week, we invite a top Indian business leader to tell us their mantra for work and life. Want to know what your boss is thinking? Nominate them by replying to indiabrief@ft.com 

Quick question

How well will India’s manufacturing sector cope with cheaper imports? Tell us here.

Tell us your reasons at indiabrief@ft.com 

Buzzer round

On Friday we asked: Why is the Tokyo government planning to allow staff to work four-day weeks?

The answer is . . . in order to improve the country’s birth rate.

Once again, Aniruddha Dutta was the first with the right answer. Congratulations!

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Thank you for reading. India Business Briefing is edited by Tee Zhuo. Please send feedback, suggestions (and gossip) to indiabrief@ft.com.