India goes FTA shopping at G20 as Piyush Goyal works the room with a cart full of trade deals

India arrived at the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting in Milwaukee with a long list of trade deals to close, sign, speed up or widen. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal spent the meeting working through it, one counterpart at a time. His talks with ministers from 10 countries and the European Union covered the interim pact with the US, the FTA with the EU, a CEPA with Canada and an FTA with the Gulf bloc.

The India-US trade deal is in its final stretch, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told ANI, describing talks as being in the "short strokes", though he cautioned that an announcement is not imminent.

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"I think we're toward the end of it," he said, adding that both sides have "identified the universe of items that are sticking points". Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone on Wednesday, and Greer said they may speak again soon to assess progress.

The rest of Goyal's calendar was just as crowded, with meetings with ministers from the UK, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, France, Brazil, Mexico and Poland. Of the two largest files, the US took USD 86.5 billion of India's USD 437.7 billion in merchandise exports in 2024-25, nearly a fifth of the total, while the EU took USD 75.85 billion, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Goyal is on a week-long US visit from September 29 to October 5. It also includes meetings with American industry leaders, investors and startups in Milwaukee, Chicago and New York.

Deals nearing conclusion

Goyal's Milwaukee meetings fell into broadly four groups: deals close to signing, negotiations running to year-end targets, agreements in force that are being put to work, and older pacts up for expansion.

The two largest files in the first group sit at different stages of the same process. The India-US deal is being negotiated as an interim agreement under a broader Bilateral Trade Agreement, following a framework announced in a joint statement on February 7. Ahead of the visit, the Commerce Ministry said Goyal's US engagements would focus on finalising it. After meeting Greer, Goyal said he had a "productive discussion" towards its early conclusion.

The India-EU FTA, by contrast, was concluded on January 27 and is awaiting signature. After meeting EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, Goyal said they had "reviewed progress towards the signing and entry into force" of the agreement. He had said in July that both sides aimed to sign before the end of 2026 and bring it into effect in the first quarter of 2027.

The terms are already public. According to PIB, the EU will extend preferential access to Indian goods across 97% of its tariff lines, covering 99.5% of trade value. Duties will be eliminated immediately on 70.4% of lines, which account for 90.7% of India's exports to the bloc. A January policy brief from Germany's Kiel Institute estimates that bilateral trade could rise by 41% to 65%.

The meetings with two EU members followed the same track. Goyal and France's Nicolas Forissier discussed early signing along with aerospace manufacturing, UPI integration and joint innovation. Goyal said he looks forward to hosting Forissier in India later this year. Poland's Andrzej Domański discussed the opportunities an India-EU agreement could create for businesses, ANI reported.

Talks with year-end targets

A second group of negotiations is running to a year-end schedule. India and Canada have held four rounds, the latest in Mumbai in September, and the fifth begins in Ottawa on Monday, according to ANI. Both leaders committed in March to concluding talks by the end of 2026, the Ministry of External Affairs said, and Goyal has described the next 90 days as "a very defining period".

The two sides have cited different trade targets. Goyal's post on the meeting refers to USD 50 billion by 2030, while Canada's Maninder Sidhu said leaders have set a vision of going from about USD 30 billion to close to USD 70 billion in five years. Goods trade stood at around USD 8 billion in 2025-26, according to the Commerce Ministry.

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The India-GCC FTA, on which negotiations were formally launched in February, was the subject of Goyal's meeting with Saudi Arabia's Majid bin Abdullah Al-Kassabi. India already has agreements with two of the bloc's members. Its merchandise exports to the UAE were USD 37.36 billion in 2025-26, and bilateral trade with Oman was USD 11.18 billion, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Putting signed pacts to work

For agreements already in force, the conversations were about implementation. Goyal and the UK's Jonathan Reynolds reviewed the India-UK CETA, in force since July 15, and ways "to unlock its full potential and double bilateral trade". A PIB backgrounder puts bilateral trade at USD 56 billion. India's merchandise exports to the UK were USD 13.44 billion in 2025-26.

With Australia's Don Farrell, Goyal discussed the proposed Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement and the existing ECTA, which he said is about "ensuring Indian businesses fully leverage duty-free access". Indian exports have had zero-duty access across 100% of Australian tariff lines since January. Merchandise exports reached USD 7.28 billion in 2025-26, the Commerce Ministry told Parliament.

Goyal also marked one year of the India-EFTA pact. He said the EFTA nations have committed to promoting USD 100 billion in investments in India over 15 years. The pact gives market access on 92.2% of tariff lines, covering 99.6% of India's exports.

Research puts a number on the gap between access and use. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) estimates that only about 20% to 30% of India's eligible exports use FTA preferences, against 60% to 70% for partner countries shipping into India.

Widening existing arrangements

The fourth strand was about extending older agreements rather than closing new ones. With South Korea's Park Jung-Sung, Goyal discussed upgrading the India-Korea CEPA, in operation since 2010. The agenda covered balanced trade growth, market access for Indian agricultural, pharmaceutical and marine products, and Korean manufacturing investment in India.

With Brazil's Mauro Vieira and Márcio Fernando Elias Rosa, he discussed expanding the India-MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement, in force since June 2009. With Mexico's Marcelo Ebrard, he discussed what he described as "huge potential for deeper cooperation".

How India's FTA programme evolved

India's free trade agenda is a relatively recent chapter in its trade policy. Its early engagement was largely limited to preferential trade agreements, which give tariff concessions on a narrow range of goods. These included the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, which India joined in 1975, the Global System of Trade Preferences in 1988 and the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement in 1993.

India's first bilateral FTA, with Sri Lanka, came into force on March 1, 2000. A wider wave followed, including the CECA with Singapore in August 2005 and the ASEAN goods agreement and the CEPA with South Korea in January 2010. A CEPA with Japan and a CECA with Malaysia came in 2011. The pace slowed after 2011, and India withdrew from negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2019.

The pipeline

Several more deals are at different stages. The India-New Zealand FTA, signed on April 27, will enter into force on October 20, with duty-free access for all Indian exports and an investment commitment of USD 20 billion over 15 years. India signed Terms of Reference for an FTA with Israel in November 2025 and held the first round in February. The PIB backgrounder also lists a review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement and talks with Mexico.

Goyal put the scale in perspective in Tokyo on August 24. He said India has signed nine free trade agreements in the last four years, covering economies with a combined GDP of USD 60 trillion and 38 developed countries. Older pacts with Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN region add another USD 10 trillion, taking India's preferential market access to USD 70 trillion. Talks with at least eight or nine more groups of countries could add USD 15 trillion, he said, and would eventually bring about 75% of global trade under India's FTAs.

India's exports reached a record USD 863.1 billion in 2025-26, according to the Commerce Ministry. That was made up of USD 441.8 billion in merchandise and USD 421.3 billion in services.

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Among FTA partners, merchandise exports were highest to ASEAN at USD 38.42 billion, followed by the UAE at USD 37.36 billion, SAFTA countries at USD 25.77 billion and the UK at USD 13.44 billion. Exports of goods and services in April-August 2026-27 are estimated at USD 399.27 billion, up 15.55% from USD 345.55 billion a year earlier, according to Commerce Ministry data.

Goyal's Milwaukee meetings brought together India's trade agenda at every stage, from deals being negotiated to pacts already in force. The India-New Zealand FTA enters into force on October 20, and both the India-EU deal and the India-Canada CEPA carry year-end targets. The Commerce Ministry has said expanding market access under India's FTAs supported record exports of USD 863.1 billion in 2025-26.