EU 'inviting disaster' with carbon border tax, warns India's Piyush Goyal

India’s commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has told European policymakers that the EU’s carbon border tax is “inviting disaster” for the bloc’s own industries and consumers.

Speaking at the Berlin Global Dialogue on October 22, Goyal said: “If you have put a CBAM on yourself, you put a 50% import duty to bring steel into your country, you are inviting disaster. Your cost of living will go up. Your people will be unhappy. Your industry will be out-priced.” The EU’s safeguard regime, in force since July 1, 2026, applies a 50% duty on steel imports above duty-free tariff-rate quotas.

Goyal put the EU’s regulatory tally at “75-77 regulations”, arguing the cumulative burden makes European industry uncompetitive, and warned that in “this reciprocal world” trading partners could respond with regulations of their own, hurting European businesses.

On trade, Goyal struck an upbeat note: the India-EU free trade agreement will be signed before the end of the calendar year and become operational within four to five months — roughly the first quarter of 2027 — he said separately at the inauguration of the India Centre at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).

The minister is on a six-day visit to Germany and the Netherlands (October 22–27) leading a delegation of around 100 businesses and startups. New Delhi has secured commitments that any CBAM flexibilities the EU grants to third countries will also be extended to India.