India is on good terms with Canada, said Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, but dialogue between the two countries has been “paused to make sure that geopolitically and economically, we are all on the same page.”

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Goyal said there had been certain issues with Canada that are of “serious concern”.

Watch the full interview here:

“We also were in a dialogue with Canada, which for some time we are looking at… We have given it a pause to see how we need to take it forward. Why is that? There are several reasons we need to make sure that geopolitically and economically, we are all on the same page. Therefore, the pause on the Canada discussions. Are we not on the same page with Canada? We are on a good page, but we have had certain issues which are of serious concern. They have been highlighted in the bilateral meeting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, and we are hoping for resolution of some of these issues before we take it forward,” Goyal said.

“You will see that we have a very vast array of negotiations underway. In fact, most teams in the Commerce Ministry are actually doing two-shift working, a morning negotiation with one and another in the evening. You really need to be very sharply focused on each negotiation because you are crystal gazing into 30, 40, 50 years into the future,” the Union Minister said.

The Union Minister hailed the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 Summit 2023, which was held under India’s presidency in New Delhi on 9 and 10 September.

The Prime Minister had said that India’s G20 presidency would not be “ornamental” and would “lead up good for the world,” Goyal said.

“He (PM Modi) was really on the front foot through the Indian G20 presidency. His guidance was immensely useful for the entire team, including the ministers who had to run different ministerial sessions or engagement groups. He was very clear that this will not be just an ornamental presidency. It will lead to good for the world,“ Goyal said.

On being asked about a meeting held in August where China and Russia opposed a paragraph on the war in Ukraine, the minister began by saying, “Modi hai toh mumkin hai.”

“We had the confidence that we’ll pull it off due to PM Modi’s personal charisma, and tall leadership. Today, he is the longest-serving leader in senior positions amongst all the world leaders and the respect he has earned as a leader and for our country is immense. By and large, we were always very confident that there would be significant outcomes during the ministerial meetings.”

He added, “I think most people did have their doubts until the very end. But to pull it off on day one, we have truly crossed every expectation that anybody had. But I must say that with Prime Minister Modi, we all felt ‘kuch toh chamatkaar karenge’.”

On being asked if India is open for business for Chinese investors, the Commerce Minister said, “India is open for business for all investors across the world. We are fair to all countries. We would only like to make sure that we get reciprocal access, reciprocal benefits. We like to make sure that strategically, India’s interests are not compromised. And therefore, India is a little cautious when it comes to investments from all our land-bordering countries, whether it’s China or any other land-bordering country, we are looking at a little more cautious, calibrated approach.”

On the banning of hundreds of Chinese apps since 2021, Piyush Goyal said, “It was not a trade issue and neither was the trade department or commerce ministry involved in that decision. It was a security concern which was addressed by the concerned departments.”

Speaking about the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), he said, “Well, when I assessed the RCEP discussions, I realised that originally, India was never supposed to be a part of RCEP. It was amongst the ASEAN region, China, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Korea. To date, I have not been able to figure out why India got into the whole RCEP negotiations. Of course, when I dug into the files, when I took charge of this ministry in June of 2019, I had very little time between June and October because November was the final meeting where the call had to be taken and we were signing up. I started digging into the files. I started having very extensive stakeholder consultations across the country. I remember, I had over 200 meetings with different sectors. Two things came out very starkly. Ever since the UPA came into power in 2004, I don’t know what happened. What were those secret understandings? What were those MoUs about which we still don’t know much? Then suddenly the imports from China started shooting up. That surge is unbelievable.”

On being asked about why India has not been able to reduce dependence on Chinese imports, the minister said, “over the years, we’ve seen so many products coming in from China. It’s a long drawn process to now create enough domestic capabilities and capacity. It’s a process to introduce high quality standards to make sure we get good quality products coming into India. That process is going on very significantly at a very fast pace, because of which I think we’ve been able to promote domestic investments, promote domestic manufacturing. Otherwise, the same import figure, if I was to juxtapose what was happening prior to 2014, would have been far, far higher.”

Talking about former US President Donald Trump, Piyush Goyal said, “Two things. One, he has been President in the past and we have worked with him. I’m sure as more dialogue happens and more understanding happens, he will realise we are really not the highest tariff country in the world. In many ways, India has opened up its business through promoting bilateral agreements, also by ensuring that high technology products get free flow and lower tariffs. There are certain areas where we do have tariffs, but so has the United States. Peanut butter in America has exorbitant tariffs. Every country protects certain very critical, sensitive, politically sensitive areas through tariffs or through other measures and I think all this needs is more dialogue and debate and discussion and a deeper understanding which will resolve this matter.”