Piyush Goyal said a trade agreement with the UK should be fair, equitable and balanced.
New Delhi:
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday that India’s talks with the United Kingdom on the proposed free trade agreement were going well, but that New Delhi would have to “wait and watch” the ongoing political developments in Britain.
Beleaguered British Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned as Conservative leader, saying she can no longer fulfill the mandate elected last month, ending her humiliating 10 Downing Street tenure on her 45th day in office after an open rebellion against the anarchy. Leadership.
The outgoing 47-year-old prime minister will remain in power until her successor is elected by the ruling Conservative Party, with a quick leadership election to be completed by next week.
“We’ll have to wait and see…what happens, whether they have a quick change of leadership, whether it gets to the whole process…so let’s see who comes to the government and what their opinions are. It’s only then that we’ll be able to formulate strategy towards the UK,” Mr. Goyal said at the IIC National Export Summit in New Delhi.
However, he added that politicians and businesses across the board in the UK have realized that it is also very important for them to have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India.
“So my sense is that whoever comes to the government will want to do business with us,” he added.
The minister said the trade agreement should be fair, equitable and balanced.
He said it has to be a win-win for both parties and there is no agreement, unless both sides are satisfied.
“So we’ll have to wait and watch,” Goyal said. “But I think our free trade deals with the UK, Canada, the EU, one or two more we might announce soon, it’s all going well.”
He was responding to a question about developments in the UK and FTA talks with India.
Furthermore, he said the target of $2 trillion exports of goods and services by 2027 “looks challenging” and “we can achieve that by 2030”.
If the situation becomes favorable to India and if the industry puts in a lot of effort, “I will be the happiest person if we can do it by 2027” But unfortunately we lost time during Covid and we lose momentum due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which has caused a lot of economic pressure across the world Inflation, supply chain disruptions, and energy issues.
He added that if exports of goods grow 12 percent in terms of CAGR and services 18-19 percent, they could both reach $1 trillion by 2030.
Speaking of Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) on standards, he said the department finds “much less” attractiveness in many parts of the world to enter into MRAs.
“The developed world at least is very reluctant to accept too many MRAs for whatever reason…maybe they need more time to build confidence in our ability to provide those high-quality goods and services,” he said.
The way forward, he added, is that India should also place quality control orders on the products they want to supply to India, after which “we will have an equal footing where we will say (you) give us the MRA and we will give you the MRA”.
He said that reciprocity is the way forward.
However, he said the Indian industry is raising concerns about Quality Control Orders (QCOs) and is not supporting the government in this.
“I would urge you all to think about this. Tell us which industries want QCO, so it will give us some leverage over other countries and give us a chance to come to the negotiating table.
“Some of you are facing non-tariff barriers because of QCOs (from other countries). The US has 4,500 QCOs and we only have 450 and you are resisting our efforts to deliver high quality standards,” said Piyush Goyal.
(This story has not been edited by the NDTV crew and is automatically generated from a shared feed.)
. “Proud zombie lover. Evil pop culture buff. Amateur thinker. Total food practitioner. Tv evangelist.”