India open to free, fair trade with China: Piyush Goyal

HAGUE: India is open to promoting free and fair trade with China and hopes to expand its exports of goods and services to the neighbouring country and Asean region in the coming years, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said late Monday, signalling scope for deeper trade engagement with Beijing.Goyal told reporters that India believed in open trade across the world and was looking for open markets in different countries on a reciprocal basis to sell Indian goods and services. “Yes, at some stage maybe we will do that also,” he said when asked if India was considering a similar exercise with China after concluding talks on a trade agreement with the European Union (EU).The minister said he had met his Chinese counterpart in Yaoundé, Cameroon, earlier this year and again in New Delhi during the latter’s visit for the Brics summit in Sept. “We are open to working and encouraging free and fair trade with every country around the globe. We are looking to open markets in different countries on a reciprocal basis for our goods and services also,” he said.As China supplies India with a number of critical intermediate goods and important raw materials, Goyal said there was an established judicial process that could be followed if it was ever found that the pricing of a particular good was not proper. “We believe in the rules of fair play, we believe in the rules of open trade across the world. Markets are open across the world. We welcome suppliers to meet the growing needs of India,” the minister said.Asked about China’s recent export controls on tunnelling equipment, which could impact several infrastructure projects, Goyal said he had learnt about the move after leaving India and that govt would work on the issue.According to commerce department data, China became India’s largest trading partner in the first half of the current fiscal year, with bilateral trade between the two countries rising 10.5% to $91.8 billion, with the trade deficit also expanding.While India has recently implemented trade deals with the UK and New Zealand and the EU agreement is expected to open markets in 27 European countries, Goyal said talks with Chile were nearing conclusion and those with Canada were making good progress. Mexico is keen on an “early-harvest” arrangement while negotiations with the South African Customs Union have just begun. He said India was working towards securing preferential access to economies accounting for 76% of the estimated $115 trillion global GDP.