‘India doesn’t do trade deals in hurry or with gun to our head’

 

 

 

 

, Oct 24 (PTI) INDIA does not do trade agreements in a hurry or with a “gun to our head”, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. He said India is actively negotiating trade pacts with countries and regions, including the European Union (EU) and the US. “We are in active dialogue with the EU. We are talking to the US, but we do not do deals in a hurry and we do not do deals with deadlines or with a gun to our head,” he said at the Berlin Global Dialogue in Germany.

 

The Minister was in Berlin to participate in the dialogue, a meeting of leaders and German businesses to discuss ways to boost bilateral trade and investments. He added that a trade deal should be viewed with a long-term perspective. India, he said, never takes decisions in a rush or in the heat of the moment. Goyal added that India is looking at newer markets to deal with the high tariffs. Asked if India is getting a fair trade deal that is long term with conditions attached, Goyal said,

 

“I do not think India has ever decided who its friends will be based on any other considerations other than national interest... And somebody tells me you can’t be friends with the EU, I won’t accept that or somebody tell me tomorrow, I can’t work with Kenya, it’s not acceptable.”

 

The decision to buy a particular product from a country is something that the entire world will have to take a call on, he said. “I was reading in today’s paper, Germany is asking for an exemption from US sanctions on oil...The UK already has sorted or probably got an exemption for procuring oil from the US...So then why single out India,” he wondered. These remarks assume significance as the US is putting pressure on India to stop buying crude oil from Russia.