India’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, on Wednesday assured the Lok Sabha that the India-US trade deal ensured “complete” protection of the country’s farmers and its sensitive sectors, such as agriculture and dairy.
Throwing light on the deal’s details, Goyal said it had been finalised after months of negotiations undertaken painstakingly by officials of both countries, leading to US administration reducing tariffs on India-made goods to 18 per cent from the previous 50 per cent.
“India has been successful in protecting the agricultural and dairy sectors,” he said, adding the deal will help promote initiatives like ‘Make-in-India’ and ‘Design-in-India’, which will help make India self-reliant.
The tariff on Indian goods, said the minister, is among the lowest as compared to its competitor nations, with labour-intensive sectors getting a major boost in exports and huge opportunities opening for skilled Indians and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Both sides are now working to complete technicalities involved in the process, after which elaborate details of the deal will be announced, Goyal said.
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“Ensuring energy security for Indians is top priority of the government… India needs goods from sectors like aviation and nuclear, and the US is a major player in these segments,” he said further, and maintained that the deal is in the “national interest of India”.
Meanwhile, the Congress objected to Goyal’s press conference on the Indo-US trade deal outside the Parliament on Tuesday while the session was ongoing, with party member, Pramod Tiwari, raising a point of order in the Rajya Sabha.
“The House functions on rules and traditions. The tradition of the House has been that when a Parliament session is going on, policy matters cannot be raised outside. Yesterday, however, the commerce minister held a press conference on the trade deal,” he said during Zero Hour, citing Rule 258.
However, Chairman, C P Radhakrishnan, dismissed the point of order, stating that the minister was scheduled to make a statement on the issue in the House on Wednesday itself. “The minister is going to make a statement today and therefore there is no point of order,” he said.
On Tiwari insistence that he was raising concerns about Tuesday’s development, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Kiren Rijiju, acknowledged the Congress member’s objection, saying he agreed with the point of order and that such a tradition does exist.
“It was scheduled yesterday to make a statement (on the trade deal) in the Lok Sabha. However, the situation turned out that it could not be made. The statement will be made in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha today,” he explained.
Tiwari’s protests fell on deaf ears when Chairman disallowed further discussion on the matter.
Later, CPI-M member, John Brittas, raised a point of order under Rule 267, seeking suspension of scheduled business to take up a discussion on the Indo-US trade deal. The Chair dismissed this too, saying, “You are claiming you are right on Rule 267. The chair has already given the ruling. No Rule 267 will be entertained unless there is a very emergency situation. I have taken the House into confidence, no Rule 267.”
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