‘People will celebrate’: Piyush Goyal says India will have ‘strong comparative advantage’ after US trade deal

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday that India will have a “strong comparative advantage” in the trade deal being negotiated with the United States and that the people of India would “celebrate” once details of the deal are out. Goyal added that farmers’ interests would not be compromised in the agreement.

The Union commerce minister stressed that India was “focused on protecting” sensitive sectors and getting a comparative advantage in trade agreements in order to export more.

Speaking at the Fourth National Conference of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID) and the Industrial Development Research Association (IDRA), Goyal said, “I have the courage and conviction to announce that the US trade deal, once details are out, the people of India will celebrate that not a single sensitive interest of our farmers or any stakeholder has been compromised. On the contrary, India will stand at a very strong comparative advantage.”

The Union minister said that India was not just looking at market access through its trade deals, but investments and services were also an important part of negotiations.

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‘Few elements politicised US FTA’

Goyal made a veiled reference to the Opposition’s criticism of the trade agreement with the US, saying the deal was “sometimes politicised by a few elements.”

“The US free trade agreement is sometimes sought to be politicised by a few elements. I don’t even know whether they deserve any comment because that’s probably lack of knowledge, Details are not yet fully out. I don’t know what they are criticising,” he said.

Goyal added that he had yet to come across “a single criticism” or flaw in the eight FTAs already negotiated by the Centre. “I dare say, none of the FTAs finalised by the Modi government had found a single criticism or any flaw. I have yet to come across anybody who could find a single flaw in any of the 8 FTAs concluded,” he added.

India has so far announced FTAs with the European Union, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Oman, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Mauritius.

New Delhi has also signed the India–EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), which is between India and four members states of the European Free Trade Association – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

‘We would have been a nation of salesmen and salesgirls marketing Chinese goods in India’

Goyal said India’s trade agreements covered 38 developed and relatively prosperous countries, creating complementary trade opportunities for both sides, with India exporting products they needed and importing products required for its development.

“Imbalanced agreements cannot get you far. All the agreements before 2014 only covered $10 trillion, and countries were largely competing with India. You mentioned Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP); that would have been the death knell of manufacturing in India,” Goyal said, adding that it would have been an FTA with China.

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Goyal said that when he took office in 2019, he was shocked by the details of RCEP. “The one single act of [pulling out of RCEP negotiations] on November 4, 2019, in Bangkok, that we are discussing manufacturing and India’s industry — otherwise, we would have been a nation of salesmen and salesgirls marketing Chinese goods in India,” he said.

India had pulled out of RCEP, but the other 15 nations in the regional grouping — 10 of ASEAN plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand — had decided to go ahead.

Where do US FTA negotiations stand currently?

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said last week that the India-US trade agreement is in its “last mile”, but added that “it’s never done till it’s done”.

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have shared progress in negotiations. When Rubio was on his India visit, Trump said the agreement was “pretty close”, while adding that it “could be a much different kind of deal.”

After meeting Jaishankar in Mumbai during his recent visit, Rubio said India-US are weeks away from signing the deal and that 99% of the work is done.

“Hopefully we have some good news to announce fairly soon.”