India and Egypt are initiating talks for a potential trade agreement to enhance bilateral investment and trade while ensuring the protection of small workers, farmers, and fishermen in both countries, aiming to surpass existing trade targets.
India and Egypt will examine how a possible trade agreement could boost trade and investment while protecting the interests of farmers, fishermen and small workers in both countries, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told ANI in Cairo on Sunday. Goyal said officials from both sides would first draw up the terms of reference, which would help them determine the scope of a possible agreement and what each country could gain from it. “Once the terms of reference are set, we’ll find out what we can realistically achieve and how much a boost we can get in both investment and trade,” Goyal told ANI. “We’ll also figure out how to do all this without harming each other’s farmers or fishermen.” He said the two sides would also consider the impact on small workers and look for areas where their economies could complement each other. At the India-Egypt Business Forum earlier on Sunday, Goyal said officials would examine the possibility of either a preferential trade agreement or a free trade agreement. Goyal also expressed confidence that the two countries would reach the USD 12 billion bilateral trade target already set by their leaders. “We will definitely meet that bilateral trade target between the two countries. Beyond that, we want to make a bigger leap,” he said. Bilateral goods trade rose 64 per cent year-on-year to USD 5.04 billion in April-September 2026, according to a November 14 Commerce Ministry release citing official trade data. In the full 2025-26 financial year, India exported USD 3.87 billion worth of goods to Egypt and imported USD 2.60 billion, taking total goods trade to USD 6.47 billion. Goyal arrived in Cairo on November 14 for his November 15-16 official visit, accompanied by a delegation of more than 130 business leaders and startup representatives, the ministry said. He co-chaired the seventh India-Egypt Joint Trade Committee meeting with Egypt’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Mohamed Farid Saleh. The visit programme also includes the Joint Business Council meeting and the Egypt-India Startups Forum. Members of the visiting delegation pointed to opportunities in manufacturing exports and clean energy. EaseMyTrip co-founder and CEO Rikant Pittie said Egypt could give Indian manufacturers access to markets in Africa and the Middle East. “From my point of view, we can build our buses in India and export them to Egypt too,” he told ANI. TWI Group Managing Director Uttam Singhal said Egypt’s renewable resources could support projects that combine the two sources of power. “Egypt has an abundance of wind and solar,” he told ANI.