Trade wars present opportunity

India must seize the opportunity to increase exports to China, which will be importing goods and services worth US$24 trillion in the next five years.

“China will be importing US$24 trillion of goods and services in the next 5 years. We need to seize the opportunity presented by this effectively”, said Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.

“The ongoing trade wars present an excellent opportunity for India to gain from,” stressed Puri in his address to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on 14 June 2019.

He highlighted specific products such as Fresh grapes, Tobacco, Steel Boiler Tubes, Fresh dried oranges, Durum wheat etc where there exists tremendous potential for India to take advantage due to the high tariffs imposed by both US and China on each other.

“CII and other apex bodies could be more effective ‘eyes & ears’ of trade before the government to highlight issues, concerns and expectations,” Puri told CII’s National Conference held in New Delhi.

“Apex bodies need to be active in picking up opportunities in trade along with the government”, he commented.

“The world has come a long way since the current trading system was evolved. The multilateral trading system anchored in WTO is under strain,” he noted.

“However, India must participate in the multilateral discussions to shape the new trade rules because if we choose to stay away, we lose the opportunity to influence”, Puri elucidated.

“India has a lot to gain from the preservation and growth of multilateralism anchored in a system of law and rules & regulations”, said Puri who is also Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, and Civil Aviation.

He assured: “We will meet the target of Housing for All by 2020 as opposed to 2022 with 83 lakh houses alone getting sanctioned before the code of conduct kicked in earlier this year”.

Smart cities project is the fastest implementable project in the world and to develop it further, by the end of December 2019, 50 integrated Command & Control Centres in Smart Cities will be operational, he said of the developments on the anvil.

On the civil aviation sector, the Minister noted some turbulence in the sky, but said he was confident that the government will provide an enabling environment where the issues will be resolved.

The civil aviation sector has tremendous potential and India would want to become world leaders in the sector. The domestic carriers should be provided a level playing field to flourish, he commented.

In the real estate sector, RERA has been a gamechanger and it carries the potential of turning around the fortunes of the beleaguered sector, if implemented in true letter and spirit, the Minister pointed out. fiinews.com