Piyush Goyal says India negotiating FTAs with 8 to 9 more blocs, aims to cover 75% of global trade
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry stated that India is negotiating Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with 8 to 9 additional blocs and countries, which would collectively add about USD 15 trillion of GDP to India's preferential-access footprint.
Once concluded, India's cumulative FTA network is projected to cover approximately 75% of global trade, positioning India as a "trusted partner" within Global Value Chains (GVCs).
The statement noted that India currently has preferential market access to economies worth about USD 70 trillion, built up through agreements signed over the last four years plus older pacts with Japan, South Korea and ASEAN.
The remarks were made in the context of India's broader outreach to developed and emerging trade partners, following the conclusion of agreements such as the UAE CEPA, Australia ECTA and the EFTA TEPA in recent years.
India's FTA architecture — in-force agreements
India's trade-agreement network currently rests on a mix of older regional pacts and newer comprehensive agreements with individual developed economies. Understanding which agreements are in force, their year of entry into force, and their scope (goods only vs. goods-plus-services-plus-investment) is a recurring Prelims and Mains theme, since MCQs often test exact years and Mains answers require citing specific pacts as case studies of India's "look west"/"developed-economy-first" trade strategy.
Key Details
- India-ASEAN FTA (goods): in force from 2010; supplemented by the ASEAN-India Trade in Services and Investment Agreement.
- India-Japan CEPA: in force 2011.
- India-South Korea CEPA: in force January 2010.
- India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA): in force 2021 — India's first trade agreement with an African nation.
- India-UAE CEPA: signed February 2022, in force May 2022.
- India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA/ind-Aus ECTA): in force December 2022.
- India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA): signed March 2024, covering Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland; includes a first-of-its-kind USD 100 billion investment commitment clause from EFTA states over 15 years.
The "USD 70 trillion of preferential access" figure cited aggregates the GDP of all partner economies under these in-force agreements — the baseline against which the additional USD 15 trillion (from agreements under negotiation) would be added.
RCEP exit and India's shift to a "developed-economy-first" FTA strategy
India declined to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — the 15-member Asia-Pacific mega trade bloc comprising ASEAN's 10 members plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand — in November 2019, citing an unresolved trade deficit with China, insufficient safeguards against import surges, and inadequate market access for Indian services and labour mobility. Since then, India's trade policy has pivoted toward bilateral CEPAs/FTAs with high-income, non-competing economies (UAE, Australia, EFTA, UK, EU) rather than joining broad regional blocs with overlapping production profiles.
Key Details
- RCEP entered into force January 2022 among the 15 signatories that remained (without India); it is currently the world's largest trade bloc by GDP coverage.
- India's post-RCEP FTAs (UAE, Australia, EFTA) were negotiated and concluded faster than earlier pacts, reflecting a "quick-win," sector-calibrated negotiating approach.
- The Department of Commerce's stated target of ~75% global trade coverage would be a marked jump from India's trade-weighted FTA coverage in the years immediately after the RCEP exit.
The 8-9 additional blocs under negotiation reportedly include the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU — Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan), Peru, Chile, Israel, Canada and the Maldives, alongside upgrades to existing pacts such as the India-Korea CEPA and the India-Sri Lanka Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA). These represent the next phase of India's post-RCEP, bilateral-first strategy, following the recent conclusion of agreements with the EU, UK and Oman.
Global Value Chains (GVCs) and "trusted partner" positioning
A Global Value Chain refers to the fragmented, cross-border production process in which different stages of manufacturing a single good occur in different countries based on comparative advantage, before final assembly and sale. India's FTA push is explicitly linked to attracting GVC-linked investment — companies diversifying supply chains away from concentration in any single country (often described as "China Plus One") seek destinations that combine manufacturing capacity with duty-free access to large consumer markets via FTAs.
Key Details
- The "China Plus One" strategy gained momentum after COVID-19 supply-chain disruptions (2020-21) and geopolitical tensions, prompting multinational manufacturers to diversify production locations.
- Rules of Origin (RoO) provisions within FTAs determine how much local value-addition is required for a good to qualify for preferential tariff treatment — critical for GVC-linked manufacturing to actually benefit from FTA access.
- Schemes such as Production Linked Incentive (PLI, launched 2020) complement FTA policy by incentivizing domestic manufacturing capacity that can then be exported duty-free under new trade pacts.
The explicit reference to India positioning itself as a "trusted partner in global value chains" ties the FTA expansion agenda directly to India's manufacturing and investment-attraction strategy, not merely tariff reduction.
- India is negotiating FTAs with 8 to 9 more blocs/countries, together representing about USD 15 trillion of additional GDP.
- India's FTA network, once these are concluded, is targeted to cover approximately 75% of global trade.
- India currently has preferential market access to economies worth roughly USD 70 trillion in aggregate GDP.
- India signed nine FTAs over the preceding four years, alongside older pacts with Japan (2011), South Korea (2010) and ASEAN (2010).
- India opted out of RCEP in November 2019; RCEP (15 members, without India) entered into force in January 2022.