Exports in November encouraging, in positive territory: Goyal
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal
India’s exports numbers in November 2025 are encouraging and in the “positive territory”, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said.
The Minister also confirmed that the guidelines for two much awaited schemes for exporters–the interest equalisation scheme (IES) and the market access initiative (MAI)–would come next week.
“They (exports in November 2025) are in the positive territory. There is growth compared to the comparable period last year,” Goyal said at a press briefing following the fourth Board of Trade (BoT) meeting on Tuesday. The board, comprising industry and government representatives, serves as an apex advisory body on policy measures related to the Foreign Trade Policy.
India’s exports contracted 11.8 per cent to $34.38 billion in October 2025 (year-on-year), as US tariffs hit labour intensive goods. In April-October 2025, exports increased marginally by 0.63 per cent to $254.25 billion.
“The increase in exports in November 2025 is across several key sectors,” the Minister said.
The guidelines for all schemes under the Export Promotion Mission, cleared by the Union Cabinet earlier this month, will be out by January 15, 2025, Director General of Foreign Trade Ajay Bhadoo said.
The Minister pointed out that guidelines for the IES (which lapsed in December 31 2024) and the MAI scheme will be announced as early as next week. The IES is key for exporters to avail cheaper credit while the MAI gives marketing support.
Goyal also announced that formal negotiations for India’s FTA with Russia-led EAEU group will begin on Wednesday. Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan are the five member countries of EAEU.
He added that negotiations with Israel will begin soon virtually and the idea was to first arrive at an early harvest trade agreement with the country. Talks are also taking place on the second phase of a preferential trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
The Minister said that because of India’s growth story, many other countries were interested in getting into trade pacts with India. The partners with which there is potential for a trade pact include the SACU comprising South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.
India, which has just concluded a pact with the UK and is negotiating ones with the EU, Peru, Argentina, Oman and New Zealand, among others, is focussed on diversifying its markets. This is especially important as there is continued uncertainty around the 50 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on Indian goods.
Published on November 25, 2025
