India Brought Five Trade Agreements Into Force Between 2022 and 2026, Exported a Record US$863.1 Billion in 2025-26 and Is a Partner in Two Corridors Toward Europe and Russia

Five trade agreements have taken effect for India since 2022. The Commerce Ministry’s release of 28 July 2026 dates the one with the United Arab Emirates to 1 May 2022, Australia’s to 29 December 2022, Oman’s to 1 June 2026 and the United Kingdom’s to 15 July 2026, and says the agreement with the four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states began operating in October 2025. In the financial year 2025-26, which ran from April 2025 to March 2026, India’s exports of goods and services reached a record US$863.1 billion, the same release says.

Two transport corridors run alongside that trade network. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a planned rail and shipping route that eight parties announced on 9 September 2023. The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a sea, rail and road route from Mumbai to Russia through Iran, described by the trade publication Maritime Gateway as about 7,200 kilometres long. This article gives the dates, figures and official wording for each as of 19 October 2026.

The agreements and the dates they took effect

The UAE agreement is a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA. It took effect on 1 May 2022. The Press Information Bureau (PIB, the government’s release service) calls it India’s first full free trade agreement in a decade and says the talks were completed in 88 days. Bilateral trade passed US$100.06 billion in 2024-25, up 19.6 per cent, and the two governments have set a target of US$200 billion by 2032.

The Australia agreement, the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), took effect on 29 December 2022. PIB’s note of 18 August 2026 calls it India’s first trade agreement with a developed economy in more than a decade. It says Australia gave zero-duty access on 98.3 per cent of its tariff lines from the first day. A tariff line is one product code in a country’s customs schedule.

The agreement with EFTA, whose members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, was signed in New Delhi on 10 March 2024. The association’s joint communique says it entered into force on 1 October 2025. The Commerce Ministry says EFTA offered 92.2 per cent of its tariff lines, covering 99.6 per cent of India’s exports. The communique records a shared aim of US$100 billion of investment in India over fifteen years and one million direct jobs.

The Oman CEPA took effect on 1 June 2026. The law firm Khaitan & Co says it was signed on 18 December 2025. The Commerce Ministry says it gives duty-free access to 99.38 per cent of India’s exports to Oman by value, across 98.08 per cent of Oman’s tariff lines. Khaitan’s note says India offered to cut duties on 77.79 per cent of its own lines, covering 94.81 per cent of imports from Oman by value.

The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) was signed on 24 July 2025, according to the British government, and took effect on 15 July 2026. On that date the Commerce and Industry Minister said it gives zero-duty access to nearly 99 per cent of India’s exports, and the Commerce Secretary said goods worth more than US$140 million shipped on the first day. Our article on the India-UK agreement sets out the tariff schedules. The ministry’s table also lists an earlier one, the Mauritius agreement, which began on 1 April 2021 and gives preferential access to 310 Indian product lines.

What exporters have used so far

The 28 July release gives India’s merchandise exports to each partner in 2025-26. They were US$37,359.11 million to the UAE, US$13,444.19 million to the United Kingdom, US$7,284.17 million to Australia and US$4,021.48 million to Oman. PIB’s August note calls the UAE the largest individual FTA export market. The Oman and UK agreements began after the year closed, so their figures mark the starting point.

The release also counts certificates of origin, the documents that show goods qualify for the lower tariff. Exporters have obtained 4.45 lakh under the UAE agreement since May 2022 and 2.73 lakh under the Australia agreement since December 2022. The EFTA agreement has produced 7,885 since October 2025, and the Oman agreement 783 since 1 June 2026.

The number of product lines India sells to the UAE rose from 7,546 in 2021-22 to 8,053 in 2025-26. For Oman, the lines exported rose from 2,879 in May 2026 to 3,371 in June 2026. Exports across them were US$622.8 million in June 2026, against US$402.7 million in May 2026 and US$215.1 million in June 2025.

The export total these agreements sit inside

The Minister of State for Commerce and Industry gave the 2025-26 figures in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on 28 July 2026. Merchandise exports were US$441.8 billion and services exports US$421.3 billion, which sum to the US$863.1 billion total. On the ministry’s numbers, services made up about 48.8 per cent of it, by tuput’s arithmetic. The product groups, destinations and year-on-year comparisons are in our piece on India’s record exports.

The new year has started higher. PIB’s 18 August note puts combined exports for April to June 2026 at an estimated US$232.73 billion, up 11.37 per cent. The 15 September release covers April to August 2026-27. Combined exports are estimated at US$399.27 billion against US$345.55 billion a year earlier, up 15.55 per cent, and goods exports were US$215.91 billion against US$183.21 billion. That release marks the August figures as estimates, because the Reserve Bank of India had published services data only up to July 2026.

What the IMEC memorandum says

The memorandum was announced at the G20 leaders’ meeting on 9 September 2023. Its participants are Saudi Arabia, the European Union, India, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy and the United States. The text describes two parts: an eastern corridor linking India to the Arabian Gulf and a northern corridor linking the Gulf to Europe.

The railway is the central piece. The text says it would provide a cross-border ship-to-rail transit network, enabling goods and services to move between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Europe. Jordan and Israel are named in that sentence but are not among the eight participants. The participants also intend to lay cable for electricity and digital connectivity along the railway and pipe for clean hydrogen exports. Our article on India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission covers the domestic side of that hydrogen aim.

The memorandum states its own legal status: “It sets forth political commitments of the Participants and does not create rights or obligations under international law.” It leaves timetables to an action plan that the participants intended to draw up within sixty days.

Where IMEC stands in October 2026

India and Italy gave IMEC a paragraph in their joint declaration of 20 May 2026. The two prime ministers reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate on the corridor and, in the text’s words, “encouraged the first IMEC Ministerial meeting to take concrete steps for advancing this initiative in 2026.”

France’s special envoy for IMEC visited India from 5 to 7 October 2026, according to ANI’s report of 6 October. He said Egypt, Lebanon and Oman have shown interest in working with or joining the corridor, and that Greece and Cyprus are especially keen on full membership. Any expansion, he said, is for the existing governments to decide, and a ministerial meeting is expected later in 2026, possibly by the end of the year.

The North-South corridor and its partners

The Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore describes the INSTC as a project initiated by Russia, India and Iran. It would link the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea through Iran, and on to northern Europe through Saint Petersburg. Its brief lays out the planned freight route: by sea from Mumbai to Bandar Abbas in Iran, by road to Bandar-e-Anzali on the Caspian, by ship across the Caspian to Astrakhan in Russia, and onward by rail.

Maritime Gateway, reporting on 3 October 2026, describes a network linking India with Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe, with India, Iran and Russia as the parties to the founding agreement. Tuput could not open an official register of the corridor’s members, so it gives no wider list.

Chabahar, on Iran’s Gulf of Oman coast, is the Iranian port closest to India. India Ports Global Limited signed a 10-year contract on 13 May 2024 to operate its Shahid Beheshti terminal, and the ISAS brief says the company expected to invest about US$120 million to equip and run it. The brief argues that the port’s value depends on being tied into the wider corridor.

What is still in progress

The European Union agreement is the largest of the pending ones. The European Commission’s page, updated on 11 September 2026, says negotiations concluded in January 2026 and the Commission has sent its proposal to the Council. Council adoption, signature, European Parliament consent and a final Council decision follow, and India must ratify as well. Our article on the India-EU agreement sets out its terms.

New Zealand’s agreement was signed on 27 April 2026, and the Commerce and Industry Minister said on 21 September 2026 that it comes into force on 20 October 2026, with duty-free access for 100 per cent of Indian exports. PIB’s August note says around ten more agreements are under discussion, including with the Eurasian Economic Union, Peru, Chile, Israel, Canada and Maldives, and that the Korea and Sri Lanka agreements are being upgraded.

On IMEC, France’s envoy said member countries have so far held steering committee meetings and no ministerial meeting has taken place. For the INSTC, Maritime Gateway reports that Russia’s president said Russia has set aside loan funds for the corridor and that Iran must complete its share of the infrastructure work. Azernews reported on 15 October 2026 that a first deputy general director of Russian Railways said survey work on the Rasht-Astara railway, which links Rasht, near Iran’s Caspian coast, to Astara on the Azerbaijan border, was interrupted by military operations and has fully resumed. The official put the cost at an estimated 1.6 billion euros, of which Russia is expected to provide 1.3 billion, and said construction is planned to start in 2027 and take about three years, with completion around 2030 if work begins in 2027.