Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced that India and the European Union (EU) are fast-tracking the legal scrubbing of their Free Trade Agreement (FTA) text, aiming to complete it within 15 to 20 days. The treaty is projected to enter into force in the first quarter of 2027, opening up 27 developed nations to Indian businesses and boosting sectors like leather exports, which are being urged to target $15 billion over the next 5 to 6 years. Concurrently, India is pursuing trade pacts with Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Mexico, and Brazil. Meanwhile, negotiations to review the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) are gaining momentum. The ASEAN bloc is pushing for deeper tariff cuts from India, while New Delhi seeks calibrated reductions and stronger safeguards against the routing of cheap Chinese goods to fix a trade deficit that expanded from $7 billion in 2010 to $45.2 billion in FY25. Additionally, a newly signed New Zealand-India FTA is already seeing a “halo effect” prior to its formal implementation. Indian visitor arrivals spiked to 8,000 in April 2026, New Zealand’s apple exports to India jumped 63% in 2026, and Air New Zealand is planning a joint venture with Air India to launch direct flights between the two nations.