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He also said while India remains open to good trade agreements, the country of 1.4 billion people will never bow down or will be weak if “someone tries to discriminate against us”. He was referring to the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that has hit a pause after US President Donald Trump singled out India for penal tariffs for buying Russian crude oil. India says that it has unfairly been singled out as there are other buyers of Russian energy like China, European Union and even the US itself.
Multi-pronged strategy for exporters
Apart from the support measures that include a comprehensive Export Promotion Mission (EPM), the government is looking to push market diversification harder.
“We in the commerce ministry, through our Missions, are reaching out to other parts of the world, to look at other opportunities which we can capture,” Goyal said. He asked exporters to highlight the sectors that will be hit by the tariffs and need alternate markets. The exporters have identified textile and garments, marine products, chemicals, leather and some machinery that will be impacted most by 50% tariff rate.
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Boosting domestic demand
“We are also looking at giving a boost to domestic consumption…You will soon see the GST council meeting next week… So that the impact of these changes can be felt by all of you very quickly and that can give a quick demand booster to the entire domestic manufacturing sector,” the minister added.
As the orders from US may fall in the short-term, the officials see the boost to the domestic demand through tax cuts keeping the units producing goods for exports operational by catering to the domestic market.
The minister said the country has managed crises such as Covid-19 pandemic and nuclear sanctions successfully in the past and will handle the current situation as well.