NEW DELHI: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that the US has indicated to India that it is not looking at a new trade agreement and India will focus on foreign trade agreements with other markets, like UK and Australia.
“The USA has kind of indicated that they are not looking at new trade agreements, however, we will work with them to address market access issues on both sides, this will be a big opportunity for our export sector,” Goyal said during his interaction with Export Promotion Councils (EPCs), Commodity Boards and Authorities and other stakeholders in Mumbai.
“We are at a very positive momentum in terms of FTAs, with the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, UAE, Israel and the GCC countries. Our effort is to ensure focus on countries where we have significant potential, where we can compete better and where market size is significant,” Goyal informed. He added that India is working towards early harvest agreements with UK and Australia.
“We are engaging with industry to ensure that FTAs are fairly and equitably crafted. At the same time, FTAs cannot be a one-way traffic, we also need to open our markets, if we want a larger share in foreign markets,” Goyal added. He assured the exporters that a new foreign trade policy will be announced on October 1 this year.
Exporters body expressed their disappointment over low tax refund rates for the much-awaited Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme, announced earlier this week, almost after delay of two years.