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Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said he expects at least two more free trade agreements (FTA) to be signed up in 2023. He said negotiations are scheduled with the UK, European Union and Canada. He added that his ministry does not have the bandwidth to tend to requests by smaller trading partners like New Zealand with which the bilateral trade stands at USD 350 million.

Talking about the operationalisation of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement signed in April this year, he said January itself is filled with meetings between Indian Commerce Ministry officials and their counterparts abroad. After handing over certificates of origin to the first among the Indian goods being sent to Australia after the agreement, Goyal said the FTA will benefit a slew of sectors, including textiles, gems and jewellery and also information technology, which gets aided by the dropping of double taxation.

Goyal said he expects Indian IT companies' billing to Australia alone growing to USD 1 billion in the next 5-7 years from USD 200 million at present. Besides, he said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which India walked out of in 2019, would have become a free trade agreement with China in effect.  He added that Indian industry was 'petrified' with the earlier UPA government's move to start negotiations on the same. He called the walkout an economically prudent and wise decision. As of now, with the agreement with Australia, India has separately struck trade agreements with 13 of the 15 countries in the RCEP, while only New Zealand and China remain.