India, Jan. 27 -- India's trade policy has entered what officials describe as an Free Trade Agreement era, marked by a sustained increase in the number of FTAs concluded after a prolonged phase of caution and stalled negotiations. Over the past decade, the Piyush Goyal led Commerce ministry has signed eight FTAs or FTA-equivalent comprehensive trade agreements, a concentration unmatched in any earlier comparable period.

For much of the 2010s, India remained reluctant to expand its FTA network, citing concerns over import competition, limited gains from earlier agreements, and domestic adjustment pressures.

That position began to change after 2019, when bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements were placed at the centre of trade policy...