New Delhi, July 27 -- Trade deals that India signed initially failed to deliver. But India has since learnt from its mistakes and tweaked its strategy to see better success. Mint explains how the India-UK free trade agreement is a case in point when it comes to that process of evolution.

How did India's early trade agreements fare?

Not too well. On 7 August 2009, India signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea. A few days later it inked a Trade in Goods agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In 2011, India concluded a CEPA with Japan. From India's perspective, all these trade agreements underperformed.

The ASEAN agreement saw a sharp increase in trade volume. But India's trade d...