India’s pre-2014 free trade agreements were mostly with small and competing economies whereas India has recently signed FTAs with large and complementary economies, the government said in a presentation to members of Parliament (MPs) at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, emphasising that all recent deals have strong safeguards for farmers as key farm sectors such as grains, dairy, poultry and spices have been fully protected.
The presentation by Union minister Piyush Goyal, highlighted FTAs as an instrument adopted by developed countries to drive trade and economic growth. “Countries such as China, USA, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam have grown rapidly due to massive investments, large-scale manufacturing and exports,” it said. HT has reviewed a copy of the presentation.
While Goyal made a presentation on FTAs, his cabinet colleague, Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lallan Singh) made a presentation on the achievements of fisheries and aquaculture in India’s Blue Economy at the meeting, also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rebel lawmakers of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) who have now joined the NCPI were also present at the meeting.
Govt contrasts pre-2014 and recent FTAs
Referring to India’s FTAs signed before 2014, Goyal said they have been mostly with “small, competing and low per capita income economies” such as the ones with Asean, SAARC, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Although, India’s FTA with 10-member bloc Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2009 was a big agreement, but it favoured Asean nations the most, officials said, requesting anonymity.
The Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) was signed during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime by then commerce minister Anand Sharma in 2009, and was operationalised in 2010. AITIGA became a sore point between India and Asean due to its misuse in dumping cheaper goods from third countries, mainly China, the officials cited above said. According to them, the Union government voiced its concern over asymmetrical trade relationship and a review of the FTA was initiated. The government is negotiating with Asean to reverse the previous one-sided deal as India’s trade deficit with the 10-member bloc surged to a whopping USD 45.20 billion by 2024-25 from a mere USD 4.98 billion in 2010-11, which is alarming, they added.
The presentation highlighted that the terms were not favourable for India as the UPA government did not consult stakeholders before signing FTAs, hence deals with Asean, South Korea and Japan were not balanced and fruitful for Indian exporters. It also added that the erstwhile government was negotiating to become part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that would have opened up floodgates for Chinese goods in India.
At the final hours during the Asean Summit in Bangkok in November 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi averted India’s entry into RCEP, saying he did not find it good for the country.
Recent FTAs expand India’s global trade footprint
According to the presentation, India’s pre-2014 FTAs covered a combined GDP of USD 10 trillion as compared to nine FTAs New Delhi has signed post 2014, which covers economies having combined GDP of USD 60 trillion.
Singh said the seafood export doubled from ₹30,213 crore in 2013-14 to ₹62,408 crore in 2024-25, an increase by 107%.
In April 2025, the US imposed tariff to the extent of 58% and was the largest market accounting for 36% of the total seafood exports. The fallout of imposed tariffs was a matter of great concern for fish farmers, exporters, state governments and other stakeholders but the Union government reached out to all the stakeholders to understand ground challenges and issues, the presentation said.
New Delhi signed the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) on February 22, 2021, which was operationalised on April 1, 2021. In the next year, the government signed two separate FTAs with important economies — one with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 18, 2022 and the other with Australia on April 2, 2022. They were operationalised on May 1, and December 29, respectively, of the same year.
On March 10, 2024, India signed an FTA with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a bloc of four developed European nations Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland where EFTA nations committed USD 100 billion investments in India over 15 years. The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) was operationalised on October 1, 2025. Similar FTAs were singed with Oman and the UK on December 18 and July 24, 2025, respectively.
The India’s FTA with New Zealand has been signed on April 27, 2026, and currently under ratification process.
India and 27-member European Union on January 27, 2026, concluded negotiating the mother of all FTAs, which is expected to be signed by the end of this year. Besides that, India and the United States on February 7, 2026, jointly announced a framework to conclude an interim bilateral trade agreement (BTA) at the earliest.
At the last week’s parliamentary party meeting, the Prime Minister had instructed the lawmakers to reach out to the youth that had taken to the streets in protest over irregularities in the conduct of examinations.
