Lavanya Kukreja/VOIWORLD
The new president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Rajiv Memani has highlighted the importance of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the United States of America, stating that tricky areas requiring more consultation and greater political ramifications could be dealt with later in the future. Currently, a team of Commerce Ministry Officials from India is in Washington D.C. trying to negotiate an FTA with the US before Donald Trump’s deadline of 9 July to set higher tariffs. As per Memani, a reasonable agreement is expected to be settled with the discussion over problematic areas such as agriculture being postponed. India is reluctant to allow the US Industry access to the agriculture and dairy sectors as it could be harmful to the interests and wishes of the farmers in India. There is also the concern of religious sensitivities. Memani acknowledged the commerce ministry for engaging with various ministries including Ministry of Agriculture. He is confident that the challenges faced by the Indian Industry will be properly addressed. However, he also shared his concerns that the level of engagement with the other ministries was inadequate. He discussed further issues such as India’s uneasy relationship with China.
WATCH HERE THE PRESS CONFERENCE DONE BY CII PRESIDENT RAJIV MEMANI
Press Conference | CII President – Rajiv Memani
CII’s new president also spoke on the problems being faced by Indian industry over rare earth magnets and other important ingredients for the industry.
According to Memani, India exports over 53,000 metric tonne rare earth magnets every year and China is responsible for 60% of mining of such elements and 90% for refining them. India also depends on China for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) which are the raw materials for medicinal drug manufacturing. Therefore, China limiting the export of such magnets shall have a huge impact on India, especially on its auto sector, etc. Memani agrees that there is a predominant worry, particularly for some sectors like auto, electronics, medicine as China’s tightening of export licensing norms has further limited global availability.
