India sheds defensive stance, negotiates future-focused trade deals: Goyal

“India no longer negotiates apologetically. We are negotiating for the future,” Goyal said, underlining that free trade agreements are being shaped to reflect India’s economic strength and growth ambitions rather than past vulnerabilities.

According to Goyal, the objective of an FTA is not short-term tariff concessions but offering global partners a stake in India’s long-term expansion. “A free trade agreement is about the future — about offering partners an opportunity to participate in India’s growth over the next 20, 30, even 50 years,” he said, adding that the scale of India’s growth opportunity between now and 2047 is unlikely to be replicated elsewhere.

That shift in posture, he said, has allowed India to conclude nine trade agreements in about four years after negotiations resumed post-Covid, several of which had remained unresolved for nearly two decades. These agreements, Goyal said, were concluded from a position of confidence and trust. “If I were to encapsulate it in one word, it would be trust,” he said.

Negotiating from strength, Goyal said, has enabled India to clearly ring-fence sensitive domestic sectors while pursuing market access in areas where it is competitive. “We have not opened dairy in any trade agreement,” he said, noting that India had been transparent with partners about the need to protect small farmers who cannot compete with mechanised dairy producers in advanced economies.

At the same time, he said, India has been able to advance its offensive interests by securing access for labour-intensive exports such as textiles, footwear and leather, expanding pharmaceutical exports, and increasing farm and marine product shipments, while also attracting technology and investment.

Goyal said this confidence has also reshaped India’s engagement with major economies such as the US, where economic cooperation is increasingly aligned with strategic interests. The US, he said, brings advanced technology, capital and critical equipment, while India offers scale, competitiveness and a growing market.