Examine how India's recent FTAs with developed economies (UK, EU, EFTA) differ in their approach to non-tariff issues like labour mobility and social security.

India's new-generation trade pacts with the UK, EU and EFTA are less about tariff lines than about "behind-the-border" issues. On mobility and social security the three diverge sharply — from a binding treaty (UK), to an investment-linked bargain (EFTA), to a framework of intent (EU).

Labour mobility (Mode 4)

• UK CETA pairs services access with a mobility-friendly design aimed at Indian professionals, contractual service suppliers and independent professionals [1].
• EFTA TEPA secures commitments on entry and temporary stay of key personnel, with India obtaining commitments in 128 sub-sectors from Switzerland, 114 from Norway [2].
• EU FTA covers Intra-Corporate Transferees and business visitors, plus working rights for dependents, and lets Indian traditional medicine practitioners work under home title where unregulated [3][4].

Social security

• UK: the strongest instrument — the Double Contribution Convention, effective 15 July 2026, exempts posted workers from dual contributions for up to five years, benefiting about 75,000 professionals and 900 firms [1].
• EU: no convention; only a framework to engage on Social Security Agreements over a five-year horizon, since social security remains a member-state competence [3].
• EFTA: TEPA carries no equivalent totalisation instrument; relief depends on separate bilateral arrangements [2].

Other non-tariff levers

• EFTA is uniquely transactional: a target of USD 100 billion FDI over 15 years and 1 million direct jobs [2].
• EU goes furthest on regulatory issues — a first-of-its-kind standalone Sustainable Food Systems chapter, while its labour-environment chapter explicitly disclaims harmonisation and preserves each side's right to regulate, guarding India against conditionality [3][4].

The pattern is clear: India trades deeper market access for enforceable gains in mobility and contribution relief, calibrated to each partner's legal capacity. Consolidating this — by converting the EU's five-year framework into full social security agreements and using the UK's DCC as a template — would make services-led trade, not just goods, the engine of India's integration and of decent work under SDG-8.