As EU’s green trade rules kick in, India works policy shifts

New Delhi: While India and the European Union (EU) are ready to close a key trade pact, various Indian ministries are working on several rulebook shifts to align with a slew of new, stricter ‘green’ regulations by the EU that will come into effect within a year and are bound to impact Indian trade across sectors from coffee export to import of scrap. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change is at the forefront of the exercise, readying rulebook shifts and mechanisms to align with the incoming ‘green’ regime at the EU.

Packaging for EU – no antibiotics to boot

The latest niggle is the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation 2025/40 (PPWR) that will regulate the types of packaging acceptable across the EU markets from August 2026 onwards. Bound to have a huge impact for all Indian exports to the EU, the regulations have triggered deliberations across industry as well as several stakeholder ministries to prepare for a comprehensive overhaul of packaging systems.

Reason: the new rules call for several restrictions on the manufacturing, composition, and reusable nature of packaging. These range from barring use of single-use plastics for pre-packed fruit and vegetables to packaging of condiments, sauces, and sugar.

They also go into aspects like weight and volume of packaging to minimise unnecessary packaging. Deadlines of 2030 and 2040 have been set to ensure a minimum percentage of recycled content in packaging, all of which will require major shifts for Indian industry. The next one, under advanced discussion in the Indian government, is regarding EU’s 2018-19 ban on ‘non-therapeutic antibiotic use in livestock’ and animal products.

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ET gathered that the EU earlier this year warned India that unless it completely bans nearly 30 such antibiotics for animal use, several animal products from India would not be permitted into the EU from a specific date later this year. An older India advisory has been found inadequate. ET has learnt that the ministries of health, agriculture and commerce are finally close to issuing a full-fledged notification on the issue to align with the EU rulebook requirement. ‘Deforestation free’ products A third regulation of concern is the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) which will come into full effect between December 2025 to June 2026 with significant implications for export of coffee, palm oil, rubber, wood, soy and cattle and related products from leather to furniture. The EUDR requires exporters to assure and certify that their products are ‘deforestation free’ – not sourced/produced from deforested or degraded land. Companies will need to trace products back to their ‘origin,’ with geolocation and ‘due diligence’ procedures to ward off a stiff penalty. The Indian environment ministry is currently working on state-level mechanisms to bring in the ‘due diligence’ certification regime to prove ‘origin of wood’ involved, ET has learnt.Alongside, geo-tagging of plots is being worked upon for coffee plantations to vineyards to secure compliance to export to the EU.

The Wasteland

The EU Waste Shipment Regulation (EU WSR) comes next and will take effect from May 2026. It demands that all waste exported out of the EU must be processed in an environmentally responsible manner – through a verifiable, third party audit based mechanism. With India importing over 3.5 million tonnes of waste from the EU – iron scrap to tyre waste and paper- the WSR will require a significant shift of mechanisms at India’s growing waste processing industry. Citing the new WSR rulebook, the EU earlier this year asked India to share a list of waste products it would like to import. India is learnt to have indicated over 26 categories of waste it is keen to import. ET gathers that hectic work is on to strengthen standards and quality control measures ahead of the 2026 deadline.

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