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Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Congress party over its approach to trade agreements, accusing it of endangering India's economic interests by pushing for free trade arrangements involving China.
In an interview with ANI, Goyal criticised the Congress leadership for supporting India's entry into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), calling it a "grave mistake" that could have put the country at risk. "The Congress party's track record is that bad. Friends like Jairam Ramesh and parties like the Congress were pushing India to enter into an FTA with China. I want to ask them directly: How did you even think of letting India enter RCEP, which was effectively an FTA between China and India? How did you have the courage to put India at risk? This was a grave mistake by Congress. Congress must answer the people about how they were willing to harm India's interests through an FTA with China. This is the Congress track record," he said. During the 3rd RCEP Leaders Summit, which was held on 4 November 2019 in Bangkok, India stated that the current structure of RCEP did not reflect the RCEP Guiding Principles or address the outstanding issues and concerns of India, in light of which India did not join RCEP. RCEP was intended to provide mutually beneficial outcomes for RCEP countries, including India; however, because the current structure did not adequately address the ambitions and concerns of India's stakeholders, India did not join RCEP in its current form. Goyal highlighted the differences between the FTAs signed under the UPA government and the recently signed India-EU FTA. He criticised the Congress party's track record on free trade agreements (FTAs), saying its previous FTAs with Japan and Korea have not benefited India. Goyal said, "The Congress government had signed an FTA with Japan and Korea. That FTA was so bad that our exports to those countries haven't increased. The products on which they gave us duty concessions are not even reaching those markets, while their imports into India have doubled. Here, 99% of all exports from India will be duty-free. We have negotiated balanced FTAs. We have even signed FTAs with developed countries on our own terms. But unlike the Congress government, we don't sign FTAs with countries that compete with us or those with lower labour costs that would harm our manufacturers." Commerce Minister also hailed the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as a landmark deal that places India at the high table of international geopolitics. (ANI)
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