The UK-India CETA sits at the intersection of three distinct UK statutory regimes that together carry a signed bilateral trade treaty from political agreement into operative domestic law. The first is the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 — the procedural gateway for any treaty before ratification — under which the signed agreement is laid before Parliament with an Explanatory Memorandum and a 21-sitting-day clock runs. The Lords scrutinise through the International Agreements Committee, designated as the responsible Lords committee for Trade Act 2021 s.3 purposes by the Liaison Committee's 3rd Report of session 2021-22 (HL Paper 78).
The second layer is the Trade Act 2021 itself. Section 2(1) provides the implementing-power for an appropriate authority to make regulations giving effect to an international trade agreement. The sunset on that power was extended by the Trade Act 2021 (Power to Implement International Trade Agreements) (Extension to Expiry) Regulations 2025 (candpk=44145), passed through a Commons Delegated Legislation Committee on 4 November 2025 (candpk=195733) and the Lords on 10-11 November 2025 (candpks=202588, 202587). Without this extension the domestic statutory vehicle for India-specific implementing regulations would have lapsed.
The third layer is the customs and trade-remedies machinery in the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018. Tariff reductions, preferential rules of origin and tariff quotas under the FTA are operationalised through Customs Tariff (Preferential Trade Arrangements) regulations made under that Act, and through public notices having force of law (the Annex A draft notices and the recurring HMRC notices collection at candpk=257367 show the volume of such instruments). HMRC's April 2026 opening of exporter registration to complete origin declarations (candpk=224558) is the practical entry-point for UK businesses to access preferential tariffs.
The regime also engages two specialist parallel processes. Agriculture Act 2020 s.42 requires a published report on consistency of the agri-provisions with UK statutory protections, supported by Trade and Agriculture Commission advice (candpk=278291) and Food Standards Agency/Food Standards Scotland advice on human food safety (candpk=272090, 272081). Trade remedies are available to UK producers through the Trade Remedies Authority under the Trade Remedies (Increase in Imports as a Result of a Free Trade Agreement Causing Serious Injury to UK Producers) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/519, pk=43345), which apply Schedule 5A TCTA 2018 to bilateral safeguarding.
What the regime cannot do is bypass Parliament. CRAG is non-justiciable but politically operative; Trade Act 2021 s.2 is a Henry VIII-style power for implementing regulations but its scope is bounded by the requirement that the regulations actually implement the trade agreement rather than freelance amend domestic law; and Agriculture Act 2020 s.42 imposes a reporting duty but does not vest a veto in any body, including the TAC.