Paris: India can help French businesses become more competitive in manufacturing to tap global markets, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday here.

This could be a shared mission where France and India collaborate closely to strengthen bilateral economic ties, he added.

Addressing businesses of India and France, the minister said the level of trade and investments between the two countries needs to be enhanced, as the current figures do not reflect their true potential.

“Manufacturing is something where we can help French businesses become more competitive to capture world markets. And that could be a mission where France and India could work together,” he said.

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Talks for the proposed free trade agreement between India and the European Union are moving forward at a “very” fast pace, and this “leap of faith” would be incomplete with businesses on both sides working together aggressively to expand this relationship, he noted.

The minister urged businesses to make full use of the agreement once it is implemented.

“I agree with my friend (French minister of foreign trade Laurent Saint-Martin) that we cannot be satisfied at all with a USD 15 billion bilateral trade between two such large economies of significance.

“How can we be happy with the levels of investment…on both sides that we are currently boasting?… There’s so much we can add in terms of scale. There’s so much we can add in terms of speed,” Goyal said.

India’s exports to France stood at USD 8 billion in 2024-25, while imports were USD 7.3 billion.

“There’s so much to do to expand our exchange, not only in defence,” he said.

The minister suggested setting up a working group on artificial intelligence to enhance engagement on the subject.

“We’ve already got a lot of exchanges between the two countries on banking and insurance. We could look at seeing how that could be taken to the next level,” Goyal said, adding “We could look at global capability centres, and we have a fair bit coming in from all across the world to India to leverage the huge pool of talent and skill”.

Further, the minister highlighted that there is no need to ease business regulations in the EU.

“… identify areas of trade where we can expand with each other, and areas where we could even help each other in crossing the Rubicon of regulation. We have regulation in India too, but the kind of regulation with the EU, and on top of that, each member state. So, my businesses are just completely foxed.

“How to go through that maze, but we’ve got to sort out that. We can’t just remain foxed. We’ve got to find solutions,” he added.

The aim should be to remove some of the roadblocks, reduce compliance, make it easier to engage and grow businesses and have a rapid response mechanism that works to create mutual recognition agreements, Goyal noted.

This will enable REACH certification for chemicals to be done in India, just as a quality control order or BIS registration can be done in France.

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