PTI New Delhi

India has implemented a number of free trade agreements with developed nations and is in active dialogue for such pacts with nations including the US, Oman, and the EU, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said.

India has implemented trade pacts with Australia, the UAE and EFTA bloc. It has also signed an agreement with the UK. "We have done free trade agreements (FTAs) with many developed countries in the last three years...We are in active dialogue with the US, EU, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, and Oman," the minister told reporters here.

"It clearly shows that India is the favoured and preferred destination both for investment and for bilateral trade," he added. Goyal also said that on Thursday, with Brazil also, he has discussed expanding preferential trade agreement from its current level so that "we can" in the future penetrate the South American market in a bigger way.

The Indian official team is in Washington at present to hold trade talks with their US counterparts. The team will be there till October 17.  In February this year, leaders of India and the US directed officials to negotiate a proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement.

They have fixed a deadline to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall (October-November) of 2025.  So far, five rounds of negotiations have been completed.  Last month, Goyal led an official delegation to New York for trade talks.

These deliberations are important as the relations between the two countries have been reeling under severe stress after the Trump administration imposed a 50% tariff on Indian goods.  India, Brazil agree to expand scope of existing trade pact between India-Mercosur bloc 

India and Brazil on Thursday agreed to expand the scope of existing preferential trade pact between New Delhi and four South American nation bloc Mercosur to boost economic ties. The issue was discussed during a meeting between the visiting Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Union Minister Piyush Goyal. According to the commerce ministry statement, they agreed to set up a technical dialogue between India and Mercosur, including holding of a meeting of the Joint Administration Committee created under a provision of the PTA at the earliest mutually convenient date, with a view to defining the scope of the expansion.