The Indian government is engaged in dialogue with at least 50 nations through its Missions to help explore newer markets for exporters who have been impacted by the steep tariffs imposed by the United States, Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal said on September 4 in an exclusive interview to Network18.
“Our Missions are working in 50 countries which we have identified through data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) on the data of import and export of all other nations to identify where our products can be offered. Besides, we are also identifying what we can buy from these countries, as they too might be in similar stress,” he said.
The Union minister also said the government is reaching out to Indian conglomerates urging them to buy products from Indian exporters and offer them at affordable prices. “We recognise the sectors which could be facing stress and hence, we are trying to make connects for them. For example, when we recognised that the garments industry could face some stress, I called up the Tatas who run the Zudio and the Westside stores,” he said.
Goyal said on its part, the government is also working on reforms to make it easier for exporters to sell in the domestic market. “I am going to be talking to all other high street malls or retail large scale outlets to see if they can help garment exporters by buying their products and making it available at affordable prices. We are trying to make it easier so that they can supply to the domestic market, it is one of the reforms we are working on,” he said.
The minister said he held a meeting with Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on August 29 to further bilateral trade. “We identified people who can help our textile exporters get an entry into the Gulf market and into all of Africa. On September 18 -19 we have the high-level task force on investments dialogue in UAE where I will be taking a large business delegation, identifying sectors where we can support our exporters to get new markets,” he said.
Goyal said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry will send delegations of seafood exporters to Singapore and the UAE for them to find new buyers. He stated that Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his visit to New Delhi on September 4 committed to importing more chicken, eggs and poultry from India.
Goyal reiterated that India is looking at fast-tracking its free trade agreements (FTAs) with other regions. “We are doing a second tranche in Australia. We will soon announce the closure of our FTA with Oman. New Zealand will also close by the end of the year. My commerce secretary was in Brussels last two days and the European Union (EU) trading team will be here in New Delhi on Monday for the next round of negotiations for the India-EU FTA,” he said, adding that the trade commissioner of EU Marros Šefčovič will be in New Delhi between September 11-13 to speed up and conclude the EU FTA.
“We have the four nation EFTA which comes into effect as early as October 1. UK has been executed. We also have Chile and Peru and Eurasia terms of reference have been finalised. In first week of October I am in Qatar to finalise the terms of reference for a trade agreement with them. Similarly, Latin America also has huge potential for our products,” Goyal said.
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