Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday that India will look at working with the US on market access issues to boost bilateral trade as Washington has indicated that it is not yet looking for a new trade deal. . He also said that Australia has shown significant interest in entering into an early harvest agreement with India and exporters should share their areas of interest with the ministry. Goyal said an early harvest with countries like Australia would help India join others on similar lines.
“The US has indicated so far that they are not looking for new trade agreements, but we look forward to working with them for greater market access issues on both sides and I think that is also a great relief and a great relief. There will be a huge opportunity open for our export sector,” he said while addressing the leaders of the Export Promotion Council in Mumbai. On the proposed free trade agreement with the UK, the minister said it is progressing well as both the teams are negotiating.
“We are working with line ministries on areas where we can close the deal as quickly as possible in terms of a harvest, so instead of trying to address 11,000 lines (or products), we look at their areas of immediate interest. and our immediate interest,” Goyal said. On a comprehensive trade deal with the EU, he added that discussions have begun because the EU is a 27-nation bloc, a deal with them is a very long process. “We will work very hard to speed it up,” he said.
The minister also assured the industry that India will not allow those “mistakes” that were made in the previous FTAs and is trying to allow an interactive approach this time. “We are engaging with all of you and the industry to make sure that FTAs are designed fairly and equitably, bringing more elements of reciprocity. But FTAs cannot be one-way traffic. If we want to We have to open our markets to others as well. Their markets are big pie, and so my appeal and request to all is to identify the areas where we believe we can face the competition,” he said.
He expressed hope for an “early win” with Australia. India has also started negotiations for an agreement with Bangladesh. “Our effort is to ensure that we focus on countries where we have significant potential and more in line with the developed world where we can compete better and where market size is significant,” the minister said.
He urged the Export Promotion Councils to study FTAs and see if there are “hidden” opportunities in them as it will help India set higher export targets for 2022-23. He informed that exports are doing well and there has been an increase of 55 per cent. Up to USD 15 billion during the first two weeks of August.
Further, he said that the two sectors where significant investment opportunities exist are shipping and semi-conductors. On interest parity, he said it is in an advanced stage of finalization within the government and “we hope that very soon we will be able to put forward a cabinet note on that”.
On the exemption of duty and taxes on export products (RODTEP) scheme, he said steel, pharma and chemical sectors have not been covered due to lack of adequate budget. “But we have an open mind to consider concerns and correct mistakes that anyone feels is harmful to their industry,” he said.
He also informed the exporters that the ministry is setting up two separate divisions which will focus entirely on the services sector. The minister said that a policy will be announced for the Santa Cruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ), besides Rs 50 crore will be used to set up a common service center there and about Rs 200 crore will be used for renovation or reconstruction. So that Seepz can become a role model. A truly world class export promotion sector. In the meeting, Colin Shah, Chairman, Gems and Jewelery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) raised the issue of announcement of e-commerce policy for the sector.
To this, Goyal said that it is in an advanced stage and we will soon finalize it with the Finance Ministry. The minister also asked the export community to target USD 2 trillion exports by 2030, which includes USD 1 trillion of goods exports and USD 1 trillion of services exports.
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