Sixteen years of negotiation now fit on an index card. The October 9 summit needs five lines closed:
Autos. The leaked schedule shows the landing zone — 100-plus percent tariffs stepping to 30 over eight years inside a quota, EVs faster, the quota expanding with Indian EV exports to Europe. A concession engineered into an industrial policy.
Wine and spirits. The parallel staircase; politically loud, economically settled.
Carbon. The last ideological trench: CBAM applied to Indian steel with a transition rebate tied to carbon-price convergence. Lawyers hate it; ministers can announce it.
Procurement thresholds. How much of each other's government purchasing opens — the quietest file with the largest numbers.
Dispute design. Who judges the judges.
Already banked: the services-and-mobility chapter — the 80,000-movement quota architecture and social-security totalisation Indian negotiators chased since 2007. The default, for the first time in the file's history, is signature. The countdown runs on our world desk.
