MUMBAI: Commerce minister Piyush Goyal blamed the present state of affairs on tariffs, on the world turning a blind eye to unfair trade practices adopted by China for over two decades after its admission to the World Trade Organization in 2001, driven by the narrative of low-cost manufacturing and cheap goods. He urged the world to act collectively to restore fair trade practices to preserve multilateral trade.
He called upon India to turn the tariff crisis into an opportunity just like the country did during the Y2K (year 2000 IT transition) and Covid challenges. He also called upon Indian companies to be nationalistic and collaborate to support downstream and upstream players and align with national goals.
Speaking at an India Global Forum event in Mumbai, Goyal said that despite Monday’s stock market crash, India, with a 3% decline, was at the bottom of the list of countries ranked by fall in key indices with others having declined as much as 9%.
Goyal said Trump’s tariff war was a culmination of decades of imbalances which began with China gaining entry into the WTO and growing by leaps and bounds. “But what everybody closed their eyes to was that this growth was fuelled by unfair trade practices. This growth happened at the cost of fair play. Its foundation lay in actions which, by the rules of the game, would be considered improper,” said Goyal.
“The current state of play, in some way, is a culmination of almost three decades of this attack on several economies. And because we played by the rules of the game-because India remained true to our commitments at the WTO, as did most other well-meaning countries-we saw, starting from there, an era of unprecedented damage to national economies, to the manufacturing ecosystem in large parts of the world,” said Goyal. “Many parts of the world was convinced China would reform itself-would transform its processes, bring transparency into its economy, and work on fair terms in the global economy”.
