As the UK-India CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) came into force on 15 th July, 2026, it has been hailed as a historic milestone in India-UK relations with both countries seeking to benefit from greater market access and increased exports. While the public discourse around CETA has been dominated by reduction of tariffs on physical goods on both sides, a deeper structural transformation that the agreement embodies is a framework that significantly boosts services trade, professional mobility and social security protection for Indian workforce. For a country like India whose comparative advantage has been increasingly demonstrated in skills and services, this is the real story that merits attention. If implemented in the spirit of the Agreement text, CETA has the potential to positively reshape opportunities for Indian professionals as well as service providers.The predictable aspect of CETA as far as services are concerned is improved market access across sectors such as IT, financial services, education, professional services and healthcare. India has secured wide-ranging commitments from the UK, covering all 12 major service sectors and 137 sub-sectors, which represents over 99 per cent of India’s export interests. Article 8.3 of the Agreement sets out the rules for market access in services trade. In general, these rules lend more predictability for suppliers of services and avoids hidden barriers like quotas or forced joint ventures.Also Read | India-UK trade deal: Luxury cars get cheaper, but your Scotch will have to waitBeyond this anticipated liberalization of services, CETA creates a structured framework for the temporary movement of professionals including business visitors, intracorporate transferees, contractual service suppliers, and independent professionals who can now access UK under clear and predictable entry rules. Article 10.4 spells out how India and the UK will grant temporary entry to each other’s nationals who fall under the agreed categories. Apart from providing this clarity, Clause 3 of Article 10.4 also prevents either side from imposing hidden quotas (i.e. numerical restrictions) or arbitrary tests (such as ‘economic needs test’ requiring proof that no local worker is available before admitting a foreign professional). These assurances under CETA will alleviate perceived risks of arbitrary restrictions that had earlier limited the potential benefits of workforce mobility. Such provisions that provide predictability for professionals and service suppliers are significant not just from an individual’s point of view but also for overall increased value chain efficiency in services. For example, services contract delivery in sectors like IT or architecture may require on-site presence at the client end along with seamless support by larger teams in centres in India like Bengaluru or Gurugram. By reducing uncertainty and codifying categories of intracorporate transferees, contractual service suppliers and independent professionals, CETA makes it easier for firms to design their delivery models around Indian workforce.Also Read | India-UK FTA from July 15: What changes for autos, whisky, exports and consumersAs another step to facilitate trade in professional services under CETA, India and UK have agreed (under Article 8.9) to encourage their respective relevant professional bodies (such as Medical Councils, Bar Associations, Accounting Institutes) to negotiate mutual recognition agreements (MRAs), which will allow each side to recognize the qualifications granted in the other country. The purpose of MRAs is to lay out a framework for cooperation in services so that professionals in their respective fields don’t have to re-qualify from scratch. While MRAs is not a binding commitment and negotiations will happen only when professional bodies on both sides express mutual interest, nevertheless it opens a door that can reduce barriers to practising abroad.Another striking feature of the package that comes into force along with CETA is the Double Contributions Convention (DCC). The DCC intends to eliminate double social security contributions for defined categories of workers on both sides. Prior to CETA, Indian professionals working temporarily in the UK, were often required to pay into the British social security system while also contributing to social security schemes in India. The DCC will support business and trade by ensuring that employees moving between the UK and India, and their employers, will only be liable to pay social security contributions in one country at a time. This means that Indian professionals on short-term projects retain their coverage under Indian schemes, ensuring that their long-term social security benefits are not compromised by working abroad. Around 75,000 workers and over 900 companies are expected to benefit, resulting in savings of more than INR 4,000 crore (as per PIB estimate).By liberalising services, encouraging mutual recognition of qualifications, streamlining professional mobility, and eliminating the financial penalty of dual social security contributions, CETA lays a firm foundation for bilateral services trade to multiply in the coming years.With all its stated benefits, if CETA aims to achieve inclusive outcomes regarding workforce mobility and services trade expansion, its benefits must extend deeper into India’s services ecosystem. This would require ensuring that the beneficial services provisions of the agreement are not limited to the large well-placed IT and consulting firms with longer experience and elaborate legal teams but they should also percolate down to the smaller firms in services domain, who should be guided about using the provisions to their benefit. If more MSME service providers can plug into UKbound value chains and more professionals can get mobility through mutual recognition of qualifications, then CETA will deliver something truly meaningful and transformative for the Indian economy.(Prof. Niti Bhasin is Professor of International Business, Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi)Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of The Economic Times.(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. 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