India-Peru FTA talks unlikely to conclude soon: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Negotiations on the proposed India-Peru free trade agreement (FTA) are unlikely to conclude anytime soon, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday, citing differences over market access for certain products.

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

Negotiations for the proposed FTA had started in 2017.


On the proposed India-Canada FTA, the minister said a team of officials will be visiting Canada for the next round of talks.

"Canada FTA is progressing well...our team is going on Monday for next round of negotiations. We are trying that we should conclude it in the next six months or so," Goyal said, adding that the government is also aiming to conclude trade deals with Mexico and Brazil by the end of this year.

The India-New Zealand FTA would become effective this year, he added.

Goyal also mentioned that he will be visiting Brussels for the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting on July 13. External affairs minister S Jaishankar and Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister for railways, information and broadcasting, and electronics and IT, will also attend the meeting.

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

India and the EU have concluded talks for an FTA, which is likely to be signed by December this year and come into effect early next year.

Toy QCO, exports

Goyal assured the toys industry that the government will not roll back mandatory quality control orders (QCOs) and urged them to target a 10-fold increase in exports over the next four years.

"I can assure you that until I am there, no one will remove QCOs. QCO will be there. We will also protect you from unfair dumping from any nation," he said while dismissing demands from some manufacturers that the QCOs should be removed. The minister said the success of foreign manufacturers is driven by quality rather than any inherent product advantage.

Goyal's statement assumes significance as the government has introduced a Transition Facilitation (Quality Control) Order, 2026, which provides a temporary compliance route for several sectors, including toys, while retaining mandatory quality standards.

Goyal said the transition arrangement is intended to facilitate investments and manufacturing at scale for a limited period and does not dilute the quality regime.

The mandatory QCOs for toys is in effect since the Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020, requiring both domestically manufactured and imported toys to conform to Bureau of Indian Standards safety norms and carry the ISI mark. The framework has since been tightened with updated safety standards.

Earlier, only 12% of India's domestic demand was met by Indian toy companies.

"Now, only ₹2,500-3,000 crore of toy imports take place," he said, adding that India's share in the global toy industry remains negligible despite a global market worth about $120 billion.

"The toy industry is as large as $120 billion globally, and we have a 0.2-0.3% share. It is right for us to export in much larger quantities," Goyal said.

India should aim to increase its market share to 5% over the next six years, he said. "We just get the entire ecosystem instead of value addition. Make components, dyes and moulds," he said.

The minister said toy exports have grown 239% over the last four years, adding that the industry should aspire for 10 times growth over the next four years.

He urged manufacturers to leverage India's recently concluded FTAs, saying the country has finalised nine FTAs in the last three-and-a-half years, opening access to the developed markets.

"You should be sending delegations to all the 38 countries covered by the nine FTAs and engage with local industries, supermarkets and e-commerce companies so your products go global," Goyal said.

On product standards, Goyal called on manufacturers to invest in better machinery and focus on quality, proposing a public-private partnership to establish a centre of excellence with product testing and design facilities.

He asked the industry to prepare a wishlist of testing equipment.