India wishes to fast-track its free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with several countries like the UK, Australia, the European Union, and Canada. As part of these negotiations, India is keen to conclude an “early harvest” trade deal with some of these countries, liberalising tariffs on select goods. Many commentators welcome India’s rethink on FTA since it marks a departure from the trade protectionism that India has been practising over the past few years. Arvind Subramanian and Shoumitro Chatterjee have argued that between 2014 and 2020, India increased tariff rates on a wide category of products. This reversed the tariff liberalisation policy that successive governments have followed since 1991. The rise in protectionism ensured that India shied away from signing FTAs in the last seven years despite the Economic Survey 2019-2020 concluding that FTAs have been beneficial for India.