India is in negotiations with at least 8 to 9 more groups of countries and individual nations that together account for another $15 trillion of GDP, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday (August 24, 2026).

He added that the country’s free trade agreements would eventually cover about 75% of global trade and help position India as a trusted partner in global value chains.

India has a large domestic market and it opens its doors to the world with nine free trade agreements signed in the last four years, he said in Tokyo, while addressing business representatives from India and Japan.

These nine agreements cover economies with a combined GDP of $60 trillion and 38 developed countries.

The earlier trade pacts with countries, including Japan and Korea , and the ASEAN region have opened another $10 trillion of GDP.

“So today India opens up the doors to preferential market access to USD 70 trillion of economy. We are in negotiations with at least 8 or 9 other groups of countries or countries which will add another $15 trillion.

“Basically 75% of global trade will be covered through our free trade agreements, opening India to become a part of the global value chain as a trusted partner,” he said.

Mr. Goyal is leading a large business delegation of over 200 representatives here to boost trade and investment ties between the two countries. He said that large opportunities for investments in India are there in areas like data centres, manufacturing and artificial intelligence.

The Minister added that the increasing economic ties should lead towards balanced trade between India and Japan.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday (July 4, 2026) said negotiations for a proposed India-Peru free trade agreement (FTA) are unlikely to conclude anytime soon, citing concerns over market access in certain products.

“There are certain concerns. There are many products where we cannot offer them market access. I do not see Peru FTA happening very soon,” he told reporters in New Delhi on the sidelines of the 17th Toy Biz International B2B Exhibition.

Negotiations for the proposed India-Peru FTA started in 2017.

On India-Canada FTA, the Minister said a team of Indian officials will be visiting Canada for the next round of negotiations.

“Canada FTA is progressing well… our team is going on Monday [July 6, 2026] for next round of negotiations. We are trying that we should conclude it in the next six months or so,” he said.

Mr. Goyal also informed that on July 13, he will be travelling with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Union Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, and Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, to Brussels for the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting.

“Our effort is that it becomes a supplement to the FTA which we have finalized and will help us to smoothen the edges and make it easier to implement the FTA going forward,” he said.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will travel to the United Kingdom on June 25-27 to meet his U.K. counterpart and review the preparedness of both countries for the implementation of the India-U.K. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and its companion Double Contribution Convention (DCC) on July 15.

During the visit, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Wednesday (June 24, 2026), Mr. Goyal will hold a high-level bilateral meeting with Peter Kyle, the UK’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

“The engagement marks an important step towards the operationalisation of the agreements and the strengthening of the economic partnership between the two countries,” the Commerce Ministry statement said.

“The bilateral discussions will focus on aligning regulatory roadmaps, streamlining cross-border customs coordination and finalising administrative mechanisms to facilitate the smooth implementation of CETA and the DCC,” it added. 

The Ministers will also review preparedness for the implementation of the CETA’s tariff liberalisation commitments and the operational roadmap for the DCC. 

“The two sides will further discuss the operationalisation of mutual market access commitments across key services sectors and review measures aimed at strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties,” the statement said.

In the run up to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer’s visit to meet officials in the Commerce Ministry, including Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, on June 23-24, two separate sources in the government have told The Hindu that an interim deal on trade only requires “final touches” and that the U.S. is keen to see a deal in place.

However, while the provisions of the deal are nearing completion, Mr. Goyal has indicated that the deal’s implementation would still require the U.S. to first finalise various tariffs.

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“The USTR Jamieson Greer is scheduled to visit India on June 23 and 24,” a senior official in the Ministry of Commerce has confirmed, adding that Mr. Greer would meet Mr. Goyal and that the discussions would be centred around “giving final touches to the framework deal”.

This comes soon after a visit by Assistant USTR Brendan Lynch to New Delhi on June 1-4.

Mr. Goyal on Saturday (June 20, 2026) indicated that recent investigations and fresh tariff announcements were a major reason for the delay in finalising the deal with the U.S.

“We cannot implement the FTA [free trade agreement] until we secure a competitive advantage,” Mr. Goyal told reporters. “The issue currently pending is that our duties need to be lower compared to those of competing nations; once this is settled, the trade agreement will be implemented.”

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Stop and start

The two countries in February issued a joint statement saying they had agreed on a framework for an interim deal on trade that was expected to be signed over the next few months. Under the framework, the U.S. was supposed to impose an 18% tariff on imports from India, placing it at an advantage compared to most of its competitors.

However, later that month, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the reciprocal tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, which slowed down the finalisation process of the trade deal.

“The negotiations have reached an advanced stage,” a second source in the government, closely associated with India’s trade deals, confirmed to The Hindu. “Several issues and details have been settled. The U.S. seems serious about finalising an agreement.”

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‘India’s advantage, amidst tariffs’

Further, the office of the USTR had, in March this year, launched an investigation under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 to look into whether its trade partners, including India, were taking enough steps to stop the import of goods that are made using forced labour.

As part of this investigation, the USTR in June had proposed a 12.5% tariff on 54 countries, including India, that it said had “failed to impose and effectively enforce” prohibitions on the import of goods produced using forced labour. The final hearing under the case will take place on July 7.

“The Section 301 investigation is legal and is following due process,” the Commerce Ministry official said. “India has made its submissions to the U.S. The trade deal covers the entire gamut of trade relations and whenever a deal is signed we will have clear answers on Section 301 investigations.”

The second official, too, said that they expect U.S. tariffs to remain “in one form or another” as they are part of a politically and strategically sensitive issue of bringing manufacturing and strategic sectors back to the U.S. However, they added that the trade deal would still provide India an advantage over its competitors.

“The government believes that the U.S. will continue to offer preferential treatment to countries with which it has a trade agreement over those with which it does not,” the official said. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent visit to India has helped pave the way for a complete reset of Canada-India relations, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in Ottawa.

The ties were strained under Mr. Carney’s predecessor in the wake of the 2023 killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.

The remarks by Mr. Goyal on Monday (May 25, 2026), who is visiting Canada, came as he met with the North American country’s International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu.

More than 100 senior business representatives from India’s mining, energy, automotive and aerospace sectors accompanied Mr. Goyal, a team New Delhi says is its largest-ever business delegation to Canada.

“This is a partnership that is being reset very, very rapidly,” Mr. Goyal said Monday (May 25, 2026).

He said Mr. Carney’s visit in late February — the first visit by a Canadian Prime Minister in eight years — “completely changed the way Canada and India looked at each other”.

“It has set in motion the pathway to a complete overhaul of this relationship, setting new agendas, new goals,” he said.

Canada and India have been in trade talks since 2010. Talks were shut down in 2023 after Canadian authorities alleged that India was involved in the killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hareep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver in June that year.

New Delhi vehemently denied the allegations and accused former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government of harbouring Sikh extremists of the Khalistan movement.

Ahead of his meeting with Mr. Sidhu, Mr. Goyal said both countries are keen to reach a free-trade agreement this year.

In India, Mr. Carney met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two sides signed a series of agreements — including a deal worth 2.6 billion Canadian dollars ($1.9 billion) to supply about 22 million pounds of uranium to India for nuclear energy generation.

A Canadian delegation was in New Delhi for trade talks earlier this month and another Indian delegation is planning to return to Canada to continue discussions later this year.

Mr. Goyal also said the two countries are working to triple their trade to $50 billion by 2030.

In Ottawa, Mr. Goyal met with Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand. He is also to meet with CEOs of leading companies, start-ups and pension funds.

Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said both countries are looking to diversify their relationships and reduce their dependence on the United States, increasingly seen as unreliable by some partners.

India recently signed trade deals with the European Union, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

“India is now pivoting to Europe as well as to other Western economies like Australia and Canada to be able to meet its needs for capital, technology and innovation,” Ms. Nadjibulla said.

With India signing a series of free trade agreements with developed countries, the government is working on an FTA utilisation plan to help maximise benefits from these pacts, an official said.

Since 2021, India has finalised free trade agreements (FTAs) with Mauritius, Australia, the UAE, Oman, New Zealand, the EFTA (European Free Trade Association), the European Union (EU), the U.K. and U.S.

These pacts cover 38 countries whose combined global imports stand at about $12 trillion.

The main Indian sectors that have received duty-free market access in these FTA partner countries include agriculture, textiles and apparel, gems and jewellery, leather and leather goods, engineering, electronics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has held a series of meetings with industry associations, businesses and export promotion councils (EPCs) on ways to increase utilisation of these agreements. He suggested that businesses leverage these pacts to boost exports and domestic manufacturing.

The official added that the Minister on Monday (May 4, 2026) held a review meeting with key officers and chief negotiators to asses the progress of India’s free trade acts.

Another meeting on Thursday (May 7, 2026), was held on preparing a roadmap for obtaining sanitary and phytosanitary (related to plants and animals) approvals for Indian agricultural and fisheries products across global markets.

The Commerce Ministry has involved Indian missions abroad in the exercise. Besides, all the line ministries are part of the process, the official said.

The role of Indian missions includes ensuring FTA awareness in importing country, market intelligence on new opportunities, and expediting resolution of non-tariff barriers.

Similarly, the line ministries’ role includes ensuring sufficient production, alignment with global standards, and focus on trade facilitation.

The whole exercise is important as the country is looking at increasing goods and services exports to $2 trillion in the coming years (one trillion each).

The country’s goods and services exports rose 4.6% to an all-time high of $863.11 billion during 2025-26, from $825.26 billion in 2024-25, despite global economic uncertainties.

Merchandise exports grew 0.93% to $441.78 billion in the last fiscal year from $437.70 billion in 2024-25. Services exports too surged to an all-time high of $421.32 billion in 2025-26, compared to $387.55 billion a year ago, recording a growth of 8.71%.

Shishir Priyadarshi, President, CRF, and former Director, WTO, said Indian businesses must stop viewing FTAs merely as tariff-cutting arrangements as their real value lies in helping firms integrate into global value chains, diversify supply chains, and position themselves as trusted partners in an increasingly fragmented global economy.

“The FTAs should be seen as an opportunity not just to export more, but to export smarter – through branded products, advanced manufacturing, processed goods, and higher-value services that strengthen India’s long-term industrial competitiveness globally,” he said.

“Industry representatives have raised issues relating to compliance costs, testing requirements, and challenges faced by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in entering export markets, during a meeting with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on April 27, 2026,” an official statement said on Tuesday (April 28, 2026).

“The Minister has assured continued support, including facilitation and targeted interventions, to reduce entry barriers and enhance ease of doing business,” the Ministry said.

India and New Zealand on Monday (April 27, 2026) signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that the Prime Ministers of both countries hailed as a “historic” step towards deepening trade, investment, and people-to-people ties between the two countries. 

The FTA, signed by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and his New Zealand counterpart Todd McClay in New Delhi, will see New Zealand removing all tariffs on all goods imported from India, while India will remove or reduce tariffs on 95% of current imports from New Zealand.

India and New Zealand will on Monday (April 27, 2026) sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that will remove tariffs on 100% of India’s exports to New Zealand, and either sharply reduce or remove tariffs on 95% of current imports from New Zealand.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday (April 25, 2026) took to social media to welcome Todd McClay, New Zealand’s Minister for Trade & Investment to New Delhi ahead of the signing of the agreement.