At the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance Women-Led Development Summit 2026, he also said that there is huge potential for India and BRICS nations to increase trade in goods and services.
“Despite all the turmoil that the world is going through today…we are well aware of the softening in global trade. I am happy to share that our merchandise exports from India have grown by upward of 15% in the first five months of this fiscal, from April to August,” he said. The government, he said, has set aggressive export targets for FY27 despite the headwinds facing global trade.
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Goyal said India sees “tremendous potential” in its trade in goods with BRICS partners and called for greater efforts to connect women-led businesses across member and partner countries. He also called on businesses to identify specific processes, documents and certification requirements that are creating hurdles for trade and said that practical data from businesses would help the government right-size policies and make it easier to do business.
He also said that BRICS countries had not focused enough on services trade among member countries and suggested that BRICS members work towards a common platform for electronic trade documents, e-invoices, e-customs and electronic bills of lading.
Goyal called for the BRICS Business Council’s work on invoice discounting platforms to reflect the actual requirements of women exporters and suggested that banks and lenders consider invoices when making lending decisions.
FTA exports
India’s exports to countries with which it has free trade agreements rose 23.9% year-on-year to $57.17 billion in April-July FY26 from $46.15 billion a year ago, Goyal said in a social media post.
This growth was faster than overall merchandise export growth, which was 17% to $173.8 billion in the first four months of the fiscal from $148.5 billion a year earlier.
ASEAN FTA
India and Thailand Wednesday discussed the progress of the ongoing review of the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement, the government said in a statement. The review is high on India’s priority list to make the agreement more user-friendly, simple and trade-facilitative for businesses.
Goyal and Suphajee Suthumpun, deputy PM and Minister of Commerce of Thailand, also discussed ways to boost trade and investment between the two countries, the commerce and industry ministry said. “The two sides exchanged views on the progress of the review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement and emphasised the need for deeper bilateral engagement through the India-Thailand Joint Trade Committee in a time-bound manner,” the ministry said in a statement.