India global trade strategy focuses on boosting exports, strengthening trade partnerships, and becoming a leading force in global commerce. By new Free Trade Agreements and active participation in major economic forums, India is expanding market access and strengthening its global presence.
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Key Highlights
- The Trade Landscape of India in a Multipolar World
- Free Trade Agreements as a Catalyst for India
- Export Growth and Export Access for India
- Indian Domestic Trade Reforms that derived Competitiveness
- India Moving Towards a Holistic Export Strategy
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India’s recent global trade strategy focuses on expanding exports and reinforcing its role as a major player in international commerce. As a result, the country has pursued ambitious free trade agreements and enhanced its engagement in key global economic forums. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and domestic structural reforms are increasingly being framed as key drivers of global economic growth, especially as countries work to manage geopolitical uncertainties and ongoing supply chain disruptions. At the same time, Free Trade Agreements and domestic structural reforms are emerging as critical engines of global economic growth. As countries navigate geopolitical uncertainties and supply chain disruptions, trade liberalization and policy reforms are playing a vital role in improving competitiveness, attracting investment, and ensuring resilient supply chains. The trade policy of India has gained a lot of scholarly interest due to its recent high-quality Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with developed economies, especially the European Union.
The importance of the strategic reforms that are being pursued to propel the export volumes to USD 2 trillion in 2030 is that it provides preferential access to nearly two-thirds of the global trade and strengthens supply-chain resilience, as well as positioning India in the best position in an increasingly multipolar economic architecture. India’s global trade strategy focuses on boosting exports, strengthening trade partnerships, and becoming a leading force in global commerce. By new Free Trade Agreements and active participation in major economic forums, India is expanding market access and strengthening its global presence.
The Trade Landscape of India in a Multipolar World
As the world moves toward a more multipolar order, India is reshaping its trade strategy with a clear goal of reaching $2 trillion in exports by 2030. The momentum is already visible, with exports growing by 6.05% in 2025 to touch $825.25 billion. The rise of a multipolar global economy, in which authority is decentralised among many regions instead of being concentrated among a small number of blocs, is re-establishing the course of trade in India.
Shifting Global Trade Dynamics
This new Global trade order is being marked by the emergence of new centres of growth (Asia, Africa, and Latin America) as nascent states. The strategy of India encapsulates this fact because the nation is diversifying its trade partnerships beyond conventional Western economies. According to Research, the Indian involvement in multi-alignment is an attempt to reduce vulnerability, as well as to seize possibilities in a spectrum of regions, such as the United States, the European Union, China, and the Global South.
India's Positioning in Global Trade
The foreign trade policy of India has an ambitious target of reaching the USD 2 trillion by the year 2030, thus indicating its desire to become more competitive in the global context. According to the Department of Commerce, the annual total exports grew by 6.05 percent in 2025, which is a bright example of the policy resilience against the background of geopolitical shocks. This activist attitude is backed by historic FTAs, including India EU FTA one, which has a GDP pool of USD 24 trillion, and access to a consumer base of two billion people.
India’s Strategic Autonomy
The trade environment in India is balancing between strategic independence and increased integration. While avoiding agreements with a single bloc, India uses FTAs to secure technology transfer, ensure that its supply chains are resilient, and gain market access. This strategy places India in a central hub position in the region and a world stakeholder in the multipolar order that is changing.
In this multipolar environment, where power is increasingly being distributed throughout the varying geopolitical centres, the re-emerging relevance of the Indian trade strategy can be traced. India is aiming to strengthen its export competitiveness, gain preferential market access to foreign markets, and supply-chain resilience by pursuing a dual strategic orientation by extending comprehensive FTAs and implementing internal trade reforms. Its comprehensive nature is evident in the policy's focus on inclusivity, aimed at thriving micro small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) as well as agriculture and labour-intensive industries. With Sustainability, Innovation, and Global Partnership, India strives not just to increase the scope of its economic presence but also to establish itself as a responsible stakeholder of the emerging global economy.
Free Trade Agreements as a Catalyst for India
The recent growth of Indian trade has been greatly driven by the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that work as a tool to promote competitiveness, market diversification, and build resilience of economic vitality in the long term.
Regional and Global Partnerships of India
India has actively pursued FTAs with various countries, including ASEAN, the Gulf, the European Union and Latin America. India made new agreements with New Zealand, Oman, and other Central-Asian economies in 2025, thus having succeeded in strategic diversification of trade partners. The India New Zealand FTA is expected to yield USD 20 billion investment alone in 15 years, which highlights how alliances can be transformational.
Export Growth and Export Access for India
Total exports surged from USD 64.05 billion to USD 73.99 billion during the period of November 2024- November 2025, with 15.52 percent growth. Analysts explain this boom by the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Oman and other recent FTAs, opening new markets, or liberalising tariff barriers.
Strategic Advantages and Problems for India
FTAs give preferential-access, cut tariffs, and increase supply-chain resiliency. As one example, the removal of tariffs in such agreements makes Indian products more competitive in the international market. But India, to strike a balance between these, and the domestic industry must bear in mind that these gains should not adversely affect the small manufacturers and the agricultural industries.
Indian Domestic Trade Reforms that derived Competitiveness
Domestic trade reforms in India focus on creating a unified national market, enhancing ease of doing business, and strengthening manufacturing. The domestic trade reforms in India have since taken centre stage in improving competitiveness and resilience in the global economy, which is evolving quite rapidly. The goals of these reforms are to make the processes simple, cost-effective, and empower various sectors.
Policy Modernisation within the Country
India also implemented sweeping reforms in 2025, such as the restructuring of GST, modernization of labour codes, and liberalisation of FDI in insurance. These policies were meant to boost the domestic economy and enhance investments, which will make the economy more agile and competitive in the global market.
India’s Export Competitiveness
As it was also observed in the recent RBI Bulletin (March 2025), the growth of Indian exports was 10.4% in the third quarter of FY 2024-25, which then contributed a 2.5 percentage point to GDP growth. Electronics, engineering products, and pharmaceuticals were identified as major drivers, which explain how reformations in the logistics and simplified tariffs were a direct booster of exports.
Inclusive Growth Measures by India
Inclusivity was also a central theme of reform efforts, which enhanced MSMEs and agriculture. In FY 2024-25, food-grain production stood at a record high; it was 330.9 million tonnes, and wheat output was 115.4 million tonnes, which is indicative of how agricultural reforms have contributed to improving competitiveness in trade.
Indian Democratic Institutional Strengthening
Online trade facilitation, modernisation of customs and more regulated business have lowered costs in their transactions and have led to increased transparency. These institutional reforms imply that the Indian trade ecosystem is not only efficient, but also it is in line with world standards, which puts the country at a stable position as an ally in global trade.
India Moving Towards a Holistic Export Strategy
India is shifting toward a comprehensive, long-term, and digitally driven export strategy, with the goal of reaching $2 trillion in combined merchandise and services exports by 2030. The idea of export that India is developing is developed more and more holistically, considering diversification, sustainability, and global interaction in the efforts to attain certain resilience in the situation of a multipolar trade.
Diversification of the Indian Export Basket
India has increased its export base, other than its traditional commodities, to high-value products that include electronics, pharmaceuticals, and services. In 2025, USD 23 billion of the exports were based on smartphones alone, which was the leading category of exports due to production-related incentives and diversifying the supply chain. This kind of diversification helps to reduce the dependency of a few sectors and enhances the global competitiveness of India as well.
Indian Green Trade and Sustainability
The Foreign Trade Policy in India also focused on the availability of exports in line with climate commitments. As potential drivers of export, renewable energy technologies, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen are encouraged. The approach will integrate environmental stewardship with economic development, hence making India a leader of sustainable business.
Overcoming Indian Trade Imbalances
With visible improvements, in 2025 India has an increased trade deficit with China standing at USD 81.7 billion, which illustrates the need to implement sector-specific measures on how to balance imports with competitive exports. A holistic export strategy, therefore, requires selected remedies to curb weaknesses as well as expand opportunities.
Conclusion
The way of India's trade in a multipolar world implies that it is important to balance foreign alliances and internal reforms. In contrast, free-trade agreements provide special privileges and strengthen global connections, whereas local changes are used to promote competitiveness and inclusiveness. These two pillars, synthesized together, make up a holistic approach to exporting, which includes sustainability, diversification, and resilience. The ability to strike a balance between national economic goodwill and global responsibility enables India not to be a player but rather a positive architect in international commerce in the new international system.