Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. File Photo: @PiyushGoyal X/ANI Photo
Negotiations between India and the European Union on a free trade agreement have crossed the halfway mark, with 10 of the agreement’s 20 chapters completed and several more chapters nearing completion, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday (Oct 29, 2025).
The minister returned from a three-country tour last week, visiting Geneva for the 16th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Berlin for the Berlin Global Dialogues and Brussels to “further our negotiations with the European Union” on a free trade agreement, Mr. Goyal said at a press briefing.
“In the three-day discussion between the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Šefčovič and his team and our team, we made significant progress in several areas,” Goyal said.
Chapters closed
“We have agreed to close 10 of the 20 chapters,” he added. “The next four to five chapters have been broadly decided in principle.”
He further stated that on a growing number of issues both teams are moving towards convergence. An EU team is expected to visit New Delhi next week for the next round of talks, and Mr Šefčovič will visit the capital in late November or December, the minister said.
Asked whether talks on a free trade deal with the EU would be completed by the end of the calendar year, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in February, Mr Goyal said the priority was a “good deal” rather than meeting deadlines.
“We have received instructions from our leaders, but this guidance does not mean that we are making any deal,” he said. “It must be a good deal.
In a press release issued earlier in the day, the Department of Trade and Industry said issues related to steel, automobiles, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and other EU regulations still required further discussion “as these issues are of higher sensitivity”.
On CBAM, Mr Goyal said the issue had been discussed “in great detail” over the past week and that the Indian team had expressed the country’s position very firmly. He said negotiations on the matter were “moving in the right direction”.
“Voice of the Global South”
The minister revealed that he would speak via video conference with New Zealand’s trade minister on Wednesday (October 29) evening, and that an Indian negotiating team would visit the country next Tuesday “to try to essentially conclude negotiations on a free trade agreement”.
“At UNCTAD, India has once again shown that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi we speak for the Global South,” Goyal said. “We represent the voice of less privileged, less developed or developing economies and stand for collective action for global good, peace and prosperity.”
Mr Goyal said he met his German counterparts, other German government ministers and several European businesses during the Berlin Global Dialogues.
“They have shown that more and more countries and almost all businesses today want to expand relations with a resurgent, strong, decisive, democratic and ambitious India,” he said.
Published – 29 Oct 2025 20:44 IST
