“Our relations are very robust. We have a deep strategic partnership on several aspects- technology, defence, trade and investments, and our approach is that India should get preferential market access,” Goyal told reporters here as one year elapsed of the US’ ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcement.
“Being the world’s fastest growing economy, India holds huge promise for investors who will continue to look at the India opportunity,” Goyal said, adding India is in a “very sweet spot” in promoting trade with the US.
Also read: India Inc seeks export ban on key inputs, QCO relief
He met US trade representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the World Trade Organisation’s 14th ministerial conference (MC14) in Cameroon last week and discussed the next steps in the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) negotiations.
He also held bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao “after a long time” with whom he discussed ways to expand trade, move towards more balanced trade, generate trust to help smooth bilateral trade and give greater opportunity for Indian exporters to export pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, fish and farm products.
“All in all, a good start to generating greater opportunities for our exporters in China,” Goyal said.Also read | A shield for India Inc: How govt is blunting the Iran war shock
WTO- Ecomm, IFD
At the MC14, India was open to a ‘longer’ timeline on the extension of the moratorium on e-commerce to bring more predictability for businesses, indicating a softening of stance. The moratorium has been extended for two years as a practice.
“India’s stand was that we should look at a slightly longer period so that businesses can plan their activities for a longer period…This is still under discussion amongst various countries and will be finalised in the next month or two,” Goyal said.
India reiterated that the e-commerce extension will be co-terminus, and it must align with the TRIPS non-violation moratorium. “We do hope that an amicable solution can be found in the near future,” he said.
India stood alone in opposing the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement as it is “better to stand alone for the right than to be in a crowd just to look good.”
It is important to protect India’s interests and the multilateral character and consensus-building approach of the WTO, he said. “It is important that we do not let issues which are not a part of the mandate of the WTO creep into the WTO agreement…but because of that, it has not changed the dimension of our multi-faceted relationship with any other set of countries or any other country.”
“Proper guardrails should come into the system, or we should multilateralise the investment facilitation or promotion after everybody is on board with consensus,” he said.
War-time Trade Measures
On the ongoing war in West Asia, the minister said, “Some more decisions are on the anvil, under consideration at different levels and ministries.” There is some residual impact on shipping costs and insurance, he noted. The measures may include some freight subsidies. The government had earlier announced a relief package for exporters.
Goyal said the country remains “pretty much” insulated and has shown resilience on food and energy security.
As on March 21, India’s export growth was flat.
“It has hurt the global economy, hurting global trade,” he added. “The difficulties in free movement of goods in the open seas is another area that we are all collectively hoping can be resolved quickly.”
On Free Trade Agreements
The trade agreement with the UK could come into force “over the next 30-45 days” and India and Oman aim to operationalise their FTA in May.
India and New Zealand plan to sign the trade deal in the last week of April in India. Negotiations with Peru are stuck due to mismatch in expectations and talks with SACU will start in the next few months.