India’s flurry of free trade agreements risks repeating old mistakes unless it is matched by a deeper transformation at home. According to the World Trade Organization, New Delhi has already entered into 20 regional or bilateral pacts. This does not include the latest deals with the United Kingdom and the European Free Trade Association, or the negotiations under way with the United States, the European Union, Canada and the Southern African Customs Union. Faced with American tariffs of up to 50% on key exports, the urge to “sign quickly” is understandable. But speed without strategy will not serve India’s long-term interests.
The record of some earlier agreements is sobering. Commerce Ministry data show that FTAs with ASEAN, Japan and South Korea have coincided with sharp, persistent trade deficits. With ASEAN alone, India’s deficit has reportedly widened more than fourfold since 2017. The problem is not trade openness per se, but how these deals were designed and implemented. Too little attention was paid to mutual recognition of standards and certifications, to robust rules of origin, and to non-tariff barriers that quietly erode preferential access.
Many agreements were not tailored to India’s sectoral strengths; consultations with exporters were patchy; and there was scant effort to help domestic firms actually use the new preferences. The more balanced performance of the India–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement suggests that course correction is possible when design and follow-through improve.
As talks with the US and EU accelerate, New Delhi must internalise this lesson. Negotiating positions should be built around granular inputs from sectors such as services, seafood, engineering goods and textiles, and must factor in emerging regimes like the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Above all, trade policy cannot stop at tariff lines. If FTAs are to deliver lasting gains, they must be backed by investment in standards infrastructure, logistics, technology upgrading and market intelligence so that Indian firms can genuinely plug into global value chains, not merely watch others do so.
