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New Delhi [India], April 11 (ANI): Noting that not too much Chinese investment has come to India nor is the government encouraging any significant investment coming from the northern neighbour, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that the effort is to integrate “our economies with the developed world, who believe in fair play and where we get an equal opportunity to do business and invest.”
Speaking at the Carnegie India World Technology Summit, Goyal said everything will be based on reciprocity, mutual trust, and mutual benefit.
Referring to the changes in the global trading system brought about by US President Donald Trump imposing tariffs, Goyal said he personally does not see any great disturbance and that the reset is actually good for the world.
“India will protect its interests. For us, it is India first. Whatever is in our interest, we will recalibrate our policy accordingly. As of now, there is hardly any foreign direct investment from China in India. It was the same in the last 25 years. Even when it was open, not too much Chinese investment has come to India. Nor are we encouraging any significant investment coming in from China at all. At the moment, that is the policy,” he said.
“Our effort is to integrate our economies with the developed world, who believe in fair play, who believe in honest business practices, and where we get an equal opportunity to do business and invest. Everything will be based on reciprocity. Everything will be based on mutual trust and mutual benefit. Therefore, I personally don’t see any great disturbance, except for a short period of time. I think this reset that the world is going through is actually very good for the world,” he added.
US President Donald Trump had on April 9 put a 90-day pause and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff during this period, of 10 per cent on countries that had engaged in trade talks with the US. However, he imposed a total of 145 per cent tariff on China, with Beijing also imposing retaliatory tariffs.
Goyal also referred to benefits given to China after it was accepted into the World Trade Organisation.
He said India’s decision to not join RCEP has been vindicated by the current situation in the world.
“I said it the other day, in my humble view the genesis of this entire problem goes back to the late 80s and mid-90s when China was accepted in the WTO and benefits were given to China by all countries of the world collectively, all countries of the world collectively with the desire and hope that we could trust them to behave better,” he said.
“Sadly, that never happened and over the years, country after country and industrial sector after sector has realised how their practices have hurt businesses and economies. I think the best endorsement of what India did in 2019, when we decided not to join the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and stay out of this regional grouping because we felt that the guiding principles on which free trade should work were not being respected, is today being vindicated by the current situation in the world,” he added.
Piyush Goyal also said one cannot compromise with national interest just to meet trade agreement deadlines. The Minister said that at the end of the day, trade agreements have to be win-win for both sides.
“You always need to have timelines for all deadlines for whatever work you do. We do that in business all the time, don’t we? Every action should be defined in terms of a responsibility that takes a timeline, but in the case of retail agreements, these are indicated timelines…,” the Commerce Minister said.
“But at the end of the day, it has to be a win-win for both sides. It has to be a fair, equitable, and balanced solution. Just to meet the deadline, you cannot compromise national interest,” he added.
India is currently working on trade agreements with many countries and blocks of nations, including with the EU, the UK, and the US. The India-US trade deal is expected to be inked by the fall of 2025. The India-EU FTA is expected by the end of 2025.
On the trade deal with the EU, Goyal said the severity of the non-tariff barriers that Europe has created, particularly on climate regulations, have created roadblocks.
“Unless Europe recognizes the path that they are going down, if I can say it down a little bit, I see serious difficulty for Europe to be able to do trade with any country, to get India. I am actually a worried man for the very future of the European Union and their position, given the kind of dramatically difficult non-tariff barriers that they have set up, both for their own benefit and for the benefit of the people,” he explained.
“There’ll be two areas on which the European Union will have to rethink. One is these non-trade issues which they seek to superimpose into the trade agenda. Unless they get that out of their system — and the European Commission will need to reflect on it — they’ll find it very difficult to get a trade agreement with anybody whatsoever. Any self-respecting, decent country cannot sign up on commitments which are irrational beyond the realm of trade and where the rest of the world has been responsible for the problem in the first place and has sought to be put on our head as if it’s our responsibility to resolve,” he said, stressing upon Europe’s climate regulations.
Talking about India’s trade, he asserted that India has been for long “sitting in a very cosy comfort” of a large domestic market, giving them huge business opportunities here in India. (ANI)
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