Key Details
At the national workshop on “Leveraging FTAs: An Outreach Programme”, the Commerce Minister outlined a coordinated effort to convert India’s expanding network of trade agreements into export opportunities across districts and business segments.
Nationwide reach: FTA outreach is intended to cover all 780 districts, including small businesses, traders, startups and women entrepreneurs.
State-level mapping: States have been asked to identify products and clusters already benefiting from FTAs, areas where preferences remain underused, and potential first-time exporters.
Exporter support: The Export Promotion Mission is expected to assist with credit, digitised compliance, rules-of-origin documentation and market access.
Institutional coordination: The Department of Commerce and DPIIT will lead the exercise alongside line ministries, States, Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) and industry associations.
Market-access claim: According to the Minister, India’s nine FTAs span economies representing about $60 trillion in GDP and offer preferential access to nearly two-thirds of global trade.
Export performance: India recorded approximately $317 billion in exports during April–July 2026, around $36–37 billion more than in the corresponding period a year earlier.
Targets: The government is aiming for $1 trillion in exports during 2026–27 and continues to pursue the longer-term ambition of approaching $2 trillion by 2030.
Government Wants FTA Support to Reach Every District
The Commerce Ministry has called for a nationwide FTA utilisation drive aimed at businesses that may not have the expertise or institutional connections needed to enter foreign markets. States, Export Promotion Councils and industry associations are expected to carry information about trade preferences beyond established exporters and major industrial centres.
The proposed exercise would connect businesses with guidance on preferential tariffs, rules of origin, overseas standards and export procedures. It also asks States to identify local products and clusters whose export prospects may have improved under India’s existing or forthcoming trade agreements.
The Competitive Gain Lies in Relative Tariffs
The Minister argued that an FTA’s value does not lie merely in reducing a tariff; it lies in giving Indian products a better rate than competing suppliers receive in the same market.
Textiles illustrate the point. Indian exporters have previously faced higher duties than competitors such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, which benefited from least-developed-country preferences or their own trade agreements. Improved tariff access can narrow that disadvantage, leaving scale, quality, delivery, packaging and customer confidence to determine whether Indian firms gain market share.
Market Access Must Be Matched by Export Capability
Preferential tariffs are available only when exporters meet rules-of-origin, certification and destination-market requirements. The address consequently linked FTA utilisation with assistance on regulatory approvals, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade and logistics.
For MSMEs and first-time exporters, e-commerce was identified as a lower-barrier route into overseas markets. Export-oriented firms are also expected to receive priority support in the proposed 100 BHAVYA industrial parks, including concessions for units committing to higher export levels and access to plug-and-play facilities.
States and Export Bodies Become the Last-Mile Link
The proposed approach assigns a larger delivery role to State governments, EPCs and industry associations. These bodies are expected to identify viable exporters, communicate FTA opportunities in local languages, enrol more small firms and organise targeted sectoral delegations.
The workshop also sought ideas on supporting exporters facing specific constraints, including high freight costs from hill States, the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir, and disruptions affecting small exporters when the Strait of Hormuz becomes difficult to navigate.
Policy Relevance
The initiative addresses a persistent divide in Indian trade policy: market access is negotiated nationally, while the capacity to use it is unevenly distributed among firms and regions.
Its effectiveness will turn on three practical tests:
whether each State can identify credible products, clusters and destination markets rather than conduct broad awareness programmes;
whether exporters receive usable assistance with tariff classification, rules of origin, standards, logistics and regulatory approvals; and
whether FTA utilisation is tracked by agreement, product, firm size and State, allowing the government to distinguish increased awareness from actual export growth.
For the Department of Commerce, State governments and Export Promotion Councils, the task is therefore to convert a large FTA network into a decentralised export-support system accessible to businesses without specialised trade-compliance teams.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: What district- and product-level indicators will show whether the FTA outreach is bringing new MSMEs into exporting and increasing the actual use of preferential tariffs?
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