New Delhi, 22 Jan (KNN) Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that free trade agreements (FTA) are two-way traffic and told the industry to have a greater appetite for taking risks. 

Addressing an event organized by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry, he said that wherever the advantage is with some other country, Indian consumers should not be forced to buy expensive. 

He said that India no longer signs FTAs just to be a part of a group or for the sake of it but is looking at reciprocal access, good market conditions, and equitable and fair play in goods and services. 

--  “An FTA is not one-way traffic. It’s two-way traffic. Some items will come from abroad, some will go to those countries,” Goyal said.
--  “Our focus is wherever we have a comparative or competitive advantage, we should look at market access and wherever the advantage is with some other country, we don’t have to force the Indian consumer to buy expensive,” the minister said. 
--  We’ve recently launched the European Union FTA. All of these are going to be two-way traffic.
--  Replying to a question on industry’s fear on the trade pacts with the UAE and the UK, Goyal said that the government is engaging with industry before giving concessions in any sector.

Emphasizing that India is looking at “robust” FTAs with like-minded nations, with values of transparency, democracy, and mutual growth, Goyal said: “Therefore, agreements with the UAE, Australia, UK, Israel and very soon we’ll launch Canada, the GCC. ” 

“But bear in mind that ultimately in the globalized world, our industry also wants access. We also want to expand labor-oriented sectors where there’s good potential and we are losing market share,” he said and called for industry cooperation in maintaining fruitful bilateral relations. 

The minister said that India already has FTAs with Japan and Korea, and it’s not as if the country doesn’t have access. 

“In fact, there will be more accessible with different markets. Hopefully, products will be available to us at competitive prices on which we can do value addition particularly in labour oriented areas and expand our business,” he said. 

He cited the example of the textiles industry that is under stress because of zero-duty benefits enjoyed by Vietnam and Bangladesh in many markets. 

Goyal said that India trying to get zero-duty exports to the UK and also discussing the same with the European Union. 

In response to a query, Goyal assured the release of funds under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme after due diligence and verification of pending claims and assured the printing industry to take up with the finance ministry duty waivers against Export Promotion Credit Guarantee obligations to such units defaulting in recent years due to the pandemic and the resultant shrinking of export orders.