How can India reconcile its push for bilateral FTAs with its commitment to keeping the WTO at the core of global trade?

The Finance Ministry's Monthly Economic Review (September 2026) backs India's diversified trade strategy, but only within the multilateral system. It warns that FTAs which replace the WTO cause trade diversion, higher trade costs and greater uncertainty [1]. India can reconcile the two by treating FTAs as a layer on top of the WTO, not a substitute for it.

Why India pursues both tracks

• FTAs fill gaps. WTO decisions need consensus and come slowly. Its Appellate Body has not worked since December 2019 [2]. FTAs move faster on standards, digital trade and supply-chain partners.
• The WTO remains the base. About 72% of world goods trade still moves at MFN tariffs [2]. In the WTO's "FTA world" scenario, global GDP could be 6.9% lower and exports 26.9% lower by 2050 than the baseline [2]. Smaller, poorer economies would lose over three times as much as rich ones [2].

Pathways to reconcile

• WTO-consistent FTAs: design deals under GATT Article XXIV that build on MFN commitments rather than bypass them.
• Fix existing deals before signing new ones: Indian exporters make little use of FTA preferences because rules-of-origin compliance is costly. Digital certificates of origin and review clauses, as in the ongoing India–ASEAN FTA review, would help.
• Reform offers, not only defence: only 59% of members filed subsidy notifications in 2015–24 [2]. India should model transparency. It should also accept the report's point that S&DT stays essential, while exemptions not linked to real capacity weaken predictability [2]. That would strengthen India's case on food security.
• Restore dispute settlement: press for a working Appellate Body. Meanwhile, use mutually agreed solutions, whose number has nearly tripled [2].
• Voice of the Global South: at a WTO "critical juncture" [3], India can lead the LDCs and emerging economies that lose most from fragmentation.

India's FTAs and its WTO commitment fit together if bilateral deals stay WTO-plus, not WTO-minus. Using existing FTAs better and offering credible WTO reforms would make that position believable. This fits SDG 17.10, a universal, rules-based, non-discriminatory trading system under the WTO, and it protects India's strategic autonomy and export-led growth.