India negotiating trade deals with nations, blocs worth $15 trillion GDP: Piyush Goyal
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry stated that India is currently negotiating trade agreements with nations and blocs whose combined GDP is worth approximately USD 15 trillion.
The statement was made during a visit to Japan leading a business delegation of more than 200 representatives, aimed at strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties, including cooperation in data centres, manufacturing, semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
India's existing free trade agreements, concluded over the last four years, already cover partner economies with a combined GDP of about USD 60 trillion; together with the deals under negotiation, India's preferential trade-access footprint would extend to economies worth roughly USD 70 trillion-plus.
The visit included engagement with Japan's apex industry body and discussions with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on deepening the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
Types of trade agreements — FTA, CEPA, CECA
International trade pacts are graded by depth of coverage. A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) primarily reduces or eliminates tariffs on goods trade between parties. A Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) go further, covering goods, services, investment, intellectual property, and regulatory cooperation. India's agreement with Japan (2011) and with the UAE (2022) are both CEPAs; the agreement with South Korea is a CEPA (2010); the agreement with ASEAN is a goods-plus-services FTA structure.
Key Details
- India-Japan CEPA: signed 2011, India's first comprehensive economic partnership with a G7 economy.
- India-Korea CEPA: signed 2009, entered into force January 2010; a review/upgrade was concluded in later years.
- India-ASEAN FTA: goods agreement from 2010, followed by a separate ASEAN-India Trade in Services and Investment Agreement.
- India-UAE CEPA: signed February 2022, entered into force May 2022 — India's first CEPA concluded post-2014 and its fastest-negotiated major trade pact.
The Japan visit is framed around deepening an existing CEPA (not negotiating a new one), distinguishing "upgrading an in-force agreement" from the "new agreements under negotiation" that make up the additional USD 15 trillion GDP figure.
India's post-2020 FTA strategy and Global Value Chains (GVCs)
Since 2021-22, India has shifted from a cautious FTA approach (after opting out of RCEP in November 2019) to an active pursuit of trade pacts with major developed-economy partners, prioritizing partners with high per-capita income and complementary (non-competing) trade baskets. This is intended to help Indian manufacturing plug into Global Value Chains (GVCs) — the cross-border, multi-stage production networks through which goods are designed, produced, and assembled across several countries — and to position India as a "trusted partner" amid supply-chain diversification away from single-country dependence (the "China Plus One" trend).
Key Details
- India opted out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2019, citing concerns over trade deficits and insufficiently safeguarded market access.
- Since then, India has concluded/signed the UAE CEPA (2022), Australia ECTA (2022, in force December 2022), and the EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA, signed March 2024).
- India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and India-EU FTA negotiations reached advanced/concluded stages more recently, reflecting the "developed-economy first" sequencing of India's FTA strategy.
- The Ministry of Commerce and Industry's stated ambition is for India's cumulative FTA network to eventually cover roughly 75% of global trade.
The Japan delegation and the USD 15 trillion figure illustrate the scale of India's ongoing FTA pipeline — negotiations with roughly 8-9 additional blocs/countries beyond the agreements already in force, consistent with the GVC-integration strategy adopted after the RCEP exit.
Bilateral business delegations and economic diplomacy
Ministerial-led business delegations are an instrument of economic diplomacy, distinct from formal treaty negotiation — they aim to mobilize private investment, showcase sector-specific opportunities (e.g., semiconductors, AI, data centres under the India Semiconductor Mission and IndiaAI Mission), and build institutional relationships (e.g., with Japan's Keidanren, the country's largest business federation) that support the broader trade-agreement agenda.
Key Details
- Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) is Japan's largest and most influential industry association, representing major Japanese conglomerates.
- Japan is among the top sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India, particularly in manufacturing and infrastructure (e.g., Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor financing).
- India's Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) administers the India Semiconductor Mission (2021, outlay revised over time) that underpins semiconductor-cooperation pitches to partners like Japan.
The scale of the delegation (200-plus representatives) and its sectoral focus areas (semiconductors, AI, manufacturing) reflect how trade diplomacy today blends treaty negotiation with direct investment promotion.
- India is negotiating trade deals with roughly 8-9 blocs/countries together representing about USD 15 trillion in additional GDP.
- India's FTAs concluded in the last four years already cover partner economies worth a combined USD 60 trillion GDP.
- India's overall ambition, per the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is for its FTA network to eventually cover about 75% of global trade.
- The Japan business delegation comprised more than 200 representatives — among India's largest outbound trade delegations.
- India-Japan CEPA has been in force since 2011; discussions during the visit focused on deepening this existing partnership alongside new investment areas (data centres, manufacturing, AI, semiconductors).