India In Active Trade Pacts With Several Nations: Piyush Goyal
“We have done free trade agreements (FTAs) with many developed countries in the last three years. We are in active dialogue with the US, EU, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, and Oman. It clearly shows that India is the favoured and preferred destination both for investment and for bilateral trade. With Brazil also, I have discussed expanding preferential trade agreements from its current level so that we can in the future penetrate the South American market in a bigger way,” Goyal said
New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that India is in active dialogue for free trade pacts at present with nations including the US, Oman, and the EU among others as the government has implemented a number of such agreements with developed nations. “India has implemented trade pacts with Australia, the UAE and EFTA bloc and it has already signed an agreement with the UK,” the minister told reporters here.
“We have done free trade agreements (FTAs) with many developed countries in the last three years. We are in active dialogue with the US, EU, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, and Oman. It clearly shows that India is the favoured and preferred destination both for investment and for bilateral trade. With Brazil also, I have discussed expanding preferential trade agreements from its current level so that we can in the future penetrate the South American market in a bigger way,” Goyal said.
The Indian official team is in Washington at present to hold trade talks with their US counterparts. The team will be there till October 17. In February this year, leaders of India and the US directed officials to negotiate a proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). They have fixed a deadline to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall (October-November) of 2025. So far, five rounds of negotiations have been completed. Last month, Goyal led an official delegation to New York for trade talks.
These deliberations are important, as the relations between the two countries have been reeling under severe stress after the Trump administration imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods. It includes a 25 per cent additional import duty for buying Russian crude oil.
