Indian Union Commerce and industries minister Piyush Goyal revealed that Korean auto majors, like Hyundai and Kia, cost India billions of dollars in trade deficit by misusing the free-trade agreement between the two countries. At the Asia Economic Dialogue, Goyal said that the free trade agreement allows these companies to import indiscriminately, reports MSN.com.
“The Korean auto industry, specifically Hyundai and Kia, are two laggards. They have enjoyed the benefits of our free-trade agreement with Korea and Japan and continue to import indiscriminately,” Goyal said.
He added that the small investment of half a billion or a billion dollars had cost India dearly in terms of billions of dollars of trade deficit they have caused us directly with Korea or other countries.
“We’ve been talking to Korea about opening up their markets for our products, but look at the stark difference, Korea doesn’t stop any export of steel from India to Korea, and neither does Japan, but we can’t sell a tonne of steel in both these countries because there is a nationalist spirit, which we unfortunately lack,” he said.
He added that the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes could only help the manufacturing sector to a small extent as they ultimately needed to be competitive, stand on their legs, and provide quality products to the consumers.
On Free Trade Agreements with other countries, Goyal said he sees good progress in countries like the UK and Canada. “Switzerland and sister countries have not launched any agreement. I am trying to settle the broad framework and sensitive issues like we can’t allow imported dairy products to come and affect pricing; we need to first look at domestic dairy farmers’ interests,” the minister said.
“Sadly, the US doesn’t have congressional support to support free trade agreements, but we have devised other ways,” he said.
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