PHL-India Trade Seen Reaching $10 Billion With Trade Deals

BILATERAL TRADE between the Philippines and India is projected to grow to about $10 billion in the next five or six years once trade agreements with the Philippines and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) take effect, the Embassy of India in Manila said. Harsh Kumar Jain, ambassador to the Philippines said bilateral trade between the two countries has grown by 15% to 16% annually. “With the ASEAN-India revised trade agreement coming into effect once it’s concluded, and subsequently, the India-Philippines preferential trade agreement (PTA), we can easily reach $5 billion very soon, and then $10 billion in the next five to six years,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a business matching event on Tuesday. He noted that the negotiations for the PTA as well as the review of the ASEAN deal are both ongoing. “The terms of reference for the negotiating committee for the preferential trade agreement between India and Philippines have been already agreed, but we are waiting for the conclusion of the review of the ASEAN-India trade agreement on goods,” Mr. Jain said. “Once that is concluded, we will further build on that in the preferential agreement between the two countries,” he added. The ASEAN–India Free Trade Area, which took effect in 2010, is undergoing a review to address trade imbalances and shifting global supply chains. Meanwhile, the Department of Trade and Industry and India’s Ministry of Commerce revived PTA negotiations in 2023, according to the Embassy. Goods exported from India to the Philippines include engineering goods; automobile parts and accessories, transmission apparatus, electric transformers, petroleum products, semi-finished iron and steel products; drugs and pharmaceuticals, organic and inorganic chemicals; electronic goods; plastic and linoleum, rice, bovine meat, oil seeds, tobacco, and groundnuts, the embassy said. Exports of Philippine goods to India include electrical machinery, semiconductors; ores, slag and ashes, copper, lead, plastics, pearls and precious stones, residue and waste from the food industry, and animal fodder. Mr. Jain added that trade and investment between the Philippines and India are “to a large extent unaffected” by the fighting in the Middle East. Total trade between the Philippines and India hit $3.55 billion in 2025, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz