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India and Mexico have finalised the Terms of Reference (ToR) for a proposed preferential trade agreement (PTA), with the formal signing of the roadmap likely to take place soon, a government official said.
“The terms have been finalised. We are just trying to align our timelines to sign the ToR,” the official said. “Once the timelines align, we’ll sign it in either of the capitals,” he added.
Unlike a comprehensive free trade agreement, the proposed PTA with Mexico is expected to cover a more limited set of areas, including trade in goods and market access, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade and dispute settlement.
The ToR for a trade deal is a formal roadmap that sets the boundaries, goals, scope and rules for economies before they start official negotiations.
New Delhi initiated discussions for a trade agreement with Mexico after the latter imposed tariffs as steep as 50 per cent on over 1,400 products from all non-preferential partners, including India. But despite the tariffs, India’s exports to Mexico have grown nearly 17 per cent so far in the calendar year till June, according to the latest data available with the Department of Commerce.
India exported goods worth $5.73 billion to Mexico in 2025-26 (FY26), with nearly half of the shipments comprising vehicles and auto components, and electrical machinery and equipment. India also recorded a trade surplus of $3.63 billion with Mexico during the year.
The trade deal with Mexico is part of India’s broader strategy to diversify export markets and expand its footprint in Latin America. The commerce department is engaged in negotiations for a trade deal with several other South American economies, including Chile, Peru, and the Brazil-led five-member bloc Mercosur.
Besides these economies, the government is also pushing ahead with trade negotiations with developed economies. India and Canada are scheduled to hold their next round of FTA negotiations in New Delhi in September and are confident of concluding the talks by November, the official said.
India also finalised an FTA with the European Union (EU) in January this year. The two trade partners have finished legal scrubbing of the text of the trade deal and now Brussels is working on translating the text into various European languages, another government official said.
India and the EU remain on track to sign the agreement by December, the second official said. Both sides aim to implement the agreement in the first half of 2027.
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