Trade policy calibrated with growth but open for expansion: Piyush Goyal

At Business Standard Manthan, Piyush Goyal added that in America and Europe, there are still high duties for several products

India's trade policy is calibrated with its growth trajectory yet open for more expansion, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

At the Business Standard Manthan in New Delhi, Goyal said, "We have to look at our growth trajectory and calibrate the trade policy as the country moves through this cycle of growth."

"You cannot have one size fits all. What worked for America in 2024 may not work for India," the Minister of Textiles, Commerce and Industry, and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution added.

In a fireside chat with AK Bhattacharya, editorial director at Business Standard, Goyal added that in America and Europe, there are still high duties for several products.

 

However, he added that even then, India needs to internationalise its economy and look at a greater degree of engagement with the world and rapid growth in exports.

"We will be doing $2 trillion of exports by 2030. I have no doubt we will achieve it," he said.

"Our trade policy is calibrated based on our development journey, yet open for expansion."

Goyal also said that in the recently signed European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the four countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, have committed an additional $100 billion to create 1 million direct jobs in India in the next 15 years in lieu of market access. 

On the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Goyal said that India decided to withdraw from the policy in 2019 due to stakeholder concerns and to protect the Indian market from China.

He also said that if India had not moved out of the RCEP, it would not have had the kind of growth story it has had in recent years.

"We would have been flooded with sub-standard, low-quality goods coming in from certain geographies and killed the investment appetite and investment climate in India," he said.

Goyal said that the falling foreign investment into India was due to high interest rates globally.

"In the last two years, interest rates have shot through the roof," he said.

"When the interest rates in the developed world are so high, it is quite obvious that there will be an outward flow of capital and new capital will go sluggish and slow."

He added that yet, in India, the numbers fell nominally.

"Some of the numbers in other emerging economies have collapsed totally," he said.