Corridor 01 · India → United Kingdom

The tariff went to zero. The buyer didn't.

CETA opened the door on 15 July 2026. It did not introduce you to anyone, prove your origin position, or get your product past a buyer who already has a supplier he trusts.

IndependentConfidentialPartner-ledNo success fees

15 Jul 26 CETA and the Double Contribution Convention in force.
99% Of Indian goods now enter the UK duty-free or at reduced tariffs.
$140m+ Shipped from India under CETA on day one — reported.
1 Jan 27 UK CBAM begins on steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, hydrogen —

The Corridor, Both Ways

India's hard part is the state. EU & Britain's hard part is the buyer.

Entering India, the obstacle is the system — the entity, the regulator, the compliance map. Going the other way, it inverts. Incorporating a UK company takes a day and costs less than the flight. Nothing about that tells you whether anyone will buy.

Inbound · Into India

The system is the gate

Entity and structure, FDI route, sectoral caps, certification, tax. Get these right and the market is open to you. Get them wrong and the position never holds. See India Entry →

Outbound · Into the UK & EU

The relationship is the gate

Registration is trivial. What is not trivial: displacing an incumbent supplier, evidencing your origin claim, carrying DDP terms, and holding a buyer relationship after the first order.


Two Things Most Exporters Are Not Pricing In

Duty-free today is not duty-free through 2029.

The 2027 carbon cliff

From 1 January 2027 the UK applies its own carbon border mechanism to steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers and hydrogen — a separate regime from the EU's. Anyone pricing a three-year UK contract on today's landed cost is already wrong.

Every multi-year contract signed between now and then is signed into that regime. The pricing decision is being made this quarter, whether or not it is being made deliberately.

The DCC, in your favour

The companion social security agreement took effect the same day, with the exemption raised to five years. Putting your own person on the ground in Britain just became materially cheaper.

What We Do

Seven capabilities. Four ways to buy them.

Most companies arrive asking about duty and leave having changed their mind about the route to market.

01Market & incumbent readWho already supplies this, and what would make a buyer change?
02Route to marketDirect, through someone, or as someone else's brand?
03Three vetted buyers or importersWho will actually take the meeting?
04Compliance to shelfWhat stops the consignment, and who carries the liability?
05Landed cost & realisationWhat actually reaches your bank, and when?
06Origin & preferenceIs your zero tariff defensible?
07Twelve-month retainerWho holds it after the introduction?
Four Stages · Most Companies Only Need The First Two

An order to act in, not a menu to choose from.

Stage 00 · Assess

FTA Navigator

Complimentary

Is there a question here worth paying to answer? Check eligibility, estimate the duty saving, and test whether your origin position would survive verification.

Four minutes, online
Stage 01 · Validate

The Bearings

On enquiry

Export Position: is our claim and our price defensible? One line, delivered straight — including the line that says don't.

Fifteen working days
Stage 02 · Design

UK Entry Blueprint

On enquiry

How exactly do we enter, and with whom? Route, compliance path, landed cost, and named buyers or importers who will take the meeting.

Six to ten weeks
Stage 03 · Execute

Execution Partner

Monthly retainer

Are we actually selling? We hold the relationship after the introduction, through to repeat orders and terms.

Minimum six months · By invitation

The Measure

What this is worth to you — and what we do not count as success.

Worth paying for

  • A zero tariff that survives verification, evidenced before you self-certify.
  • Your landed cost known before you quote — including who carries DDP.
  • Three buyers briefed and in the room, not three names in a directory.
  • The 2027 carbon exposure priced in before you sign a multi-year contract.
  • A defensible no, in writing, when the answer is no.

Not success

  • ×A list of names nobody has called.
  • ×An origin claim we would not put our own name under.
  • ×A UK company you did not need.
  • ×A photograph from a delegation.
Why Northstar Bharat

You are being asked to trust a firm you have not met. Here is what that rests on.

16 years

Inside the UK Government's trade and investment presence in India.

50+ years

Combined across the founding team in trade, investment and market entry.

Both sides

Operated commercially at both ends — not advising on one from the other.

01

Manufacturing fluency

We read a bill of materials before a market report. Origin, costing and capacity behave as one problem, so we read them as one — built on automotive, EV, hydrogen and advanced manufacturing work alongside Indian OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers.

02

We will tell you not to

Roughly half the enquiries we take do not need us, and we say so in the first conversation. We take no success fees: you are paying for independent judgement, not for a yes.

03

Honestly bounded

We introduce where we hold the relationship. We do not claim access to HMRC, CBIC or DBT that we do not have.

Track Record · Anonymised, Representative Rather Than Exhaustive

Origination, not attendance.

Automotive & Mobility

Auto Expo · SIAT · Bharat Mobility

Decision-maker access and B2B matchmaking at India's major industry expos — meetings originated, not stands attended.

Cross-sector

A wide ambition narrowed to a thesis

Sector research reducing a broad field to the specific segments leadership could act on.

Industry & Government

Doors that would have taken a year

Senior stakeholder engagement across industry and government, convened at the moment it mattered.

Experience includes work across
  • Automotive
  • Advanced Manufacturing
  • Engineering
  • Hydrogen
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Chemicals
  • Capital Goods
  • Renewables

Named clients and detailed references are shared directly in conversation, as confidentiality allows.

Fit

We are built for a specific crossing. Most enquiries are not it.

Who this is for

  • Indian manufacturers exporting £2m+ annually, or with the capacity to.
  • Engineering, automotive and Tier-1 component suppliers.
  • New-age and emerging manufacturers — EV, cleantech, hydrogen, precision components — with a product proven at home and no route out.
  • Board-sponsored UK or EU expansion, with a mandate behind it.
  • Companies evaluating what CETA actually changes for their line.

Who this isn't for

  • ×Marketplace and Amazon sellers.
  • ×One-off or opportunistic exporters.
  • ×Trading houses without manufacturing behind them.
  • ×Anyone looking for a buyer list rather than a position.

We keep our engagements deliberately few, and Corridor 01 capacity is limited each quarter. If you don't recognise yourself above, we will say so in the first conversation rather than take the fee.

Start Where It Costs You Nothing

Four minutes. No email required.

If the Navigator tells you the corridor does not work for your product, that is the most useful thing we will do all week.

Open the FTA Navigator →
Export Position Review · 30 Minutes · No Fee

Tell us what you make. We'll tell you if it travels.

The more you give us here, the more useful the conversation is. Every submission is read by a partner — not a form queue — and answered within two working days.

  • 01We read your product against the current CETA schedule and your likely origin position before we speak.
  • 02Thirty minutes with a partner: whether the UK or the EU is the better first market, and what it would take.
  • 03If you don't need us yet, we say so on that call — and tell you what to fix first.

Reviews are scheduled in the order received, and we hold a limited number each quarter. The 2027 carbon deadline is not moving.

01 · Who you are
02 · What you make
03 · Where you are headed
Confidential. Read personally by a partner, answered within two working days.