Deals under UPA hurt India: Goyal

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday termed the India-UK Free Trade Agreement as the most comprehensive and beneficial trade deal ever signed by India, noting that the country had arrived in the comity of developed nations with this pact.

Recalling the Congress-led UPA's FTAs when India mainly dealt with ASEAN nations often opening domestic markets at the cost of domestic interests, Goyal said, “Business leaders often complained about UPA-era FTAs hurting India. We would only deal with countries like in the ASEAN which are our competitors. This hurt national interests. Today we are dealing with developed nations which complement our interests.”

Goyal said the FTA with the UK would again open India to trade in developed nations. “The UPA was opening Indian markets for nations which were competing with us and hurt our manufacturing. We have finalised deals with Mauritius, Australia, four EFTA nations, the UAE and now the UK,” he said adding that India is talking to other developed nations also.

“Now we are expanding where we do not compete with each other but complement each other. The deal with UK will help make a developed India,” he said.

Goyal when asked what the most sticking point of the deal was said: “The toughness of the deal with UK can be gauged by the fact that it has been over two decades in the making. The trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi has generates worldwide has helped us seal this deal."