Qatar ready for trade deal negotiations with India: Piyush Goyal

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said Qatar is ready to start trade pact negotiations with India, which was initially indicated during the State Visit of Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in February this year. "Yesterday, the Qatar minister told me they want to start negotiations," Piyush Goyal said, addressing an industry event. During Amir's state visit to India, the two sides had agreed on the need to explore strategies for enhanced and diversified trade between the two countries and address, as a priority, market access issues related to trade in goods and services. The two sides agreed to explore the possibility of entering into a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Both sides aim to double bilateral trade by 2030. Piyush Goyal also hinted today that the trade deal with Oman should be "sorted out" in the next few weeks. The minister, in his reply, however, didn't mention any date or timeline for the expected signing ceremony for the India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Negotiations for a comprehensive trade deal between India and Oman, which commenced in 2023, were recently concluded. India has strengthened its trade ties over the past five years, signing five major Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and progressing on several new deals. "We have a hundred billion dollar FDI commitment from the EFTA countries, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland, they're rich countries...They need a reliable partner like India, where there's talent, where there's skill, where there's a big domestic market, with growing incomes," Piyush Goyal said, as he underlined the ongoing trade pact talks with various countries. The government is working with advanced countries to secure better trading options and free trade agreements, he said. "We already concluded Mauritius, Australia, UAE, UK, the four block FTA will come into effect on October 1, one month away...We are working with the European Union on overdrive. We are working with Eurasia, a block of many nations...Chile and Peru are going on," he said. "We are also talking to the US for a bilateral trade agreement, which we had planned to complete in the first phase by fall, October-November 2025." All these engagements will open up new opportunities, new markets, and new investment possibilities to bring scale, quality, and innovation into India, he added. The agreements inked over the past 5 years include the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) implemented in 2021, the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) in 2022, the India-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) in 2024, and the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) signed in 2025, which is yet to come into force.