Goyal told Mumbai’s India Global Forum: “This growth is driven by unfair trade practices. “It is based on the action, which will be considered inappropriate according to the rules of the game. ”
He said that China’s rise, including India, “was at the expense of national economy and manufacturing ecosystems.” He believes that the current trade deadlock is not a flash point, but a result of myopia in the international community over the years.
“To some extent, the current game status is at the highest level for several economies in nearly three decades,” he said.
A world misled by reformed fantasies
Goyal accused global leaders of being too optimistic about China’s intentions, believing that the country will eventually liberalize, increase transparency and adopt a more fair trade principle. That didn’t happen.
“Many regions in the world believe that China will reform itself – transform its processes, bring transparency into its economy, and work in a fair way in the global economy.” Instead, he said China uses predatory pricing, opaque subsidy structures, and labor norms that tilt the competition area. “We didn’t find fair pricing from China,” Goyal said. “I wasn’t wary. I laid this fact very calmly.”
India must turn crisis into opportunity
Goyal calls on Indian companies to be “nationalist” in spirit, not isolationists, but rather to support domestic supply chains, cross-sectoral cooperation and aligning with national priorities. He said in the past instances, India has faced global challenges during the Y2K IT transition and the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it must be carried out in the case of tariffs.
“India can turn this phase into an opportunity,” he said. “Just like we did during the common pandemic and in the Y2K issue.”
He also urged the industry to remind the government when it witnesses dumping of foreign goods, especially from China. He said the steel industry has submitted representatives who are being evaluated by the government.
Congress caught fire due to trade deficit with China
Goyal targeted the former UPA government, who claimed that the trade deficit with China soared during his term.
“When Atal Bihari Vajpayee set up an office in 2004, India-China’s trade deficit was at a certain level,” he said. “In the 10 years of the UPA government, the trade deficit soared 25 times.”
He went further, accusing Rahul Gandhi of signing a controversial memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Communist Party, which he suggested was a hurry to reduce tariffs that allowed China to dump on a large scale into the Indian market.
“This has killed a lot of our local manufacturing industries and made us rely on China,” he said. “The country is still in the 10 years of economic mismanagement.”
Selling Roil Trump’s tariff escalation at the time
Goyal’s comments were a day of high volatility in global financial markets, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index down 13.2%, the worst crash since 1997. China’s market was shocked by U.S. tariffs and Beijing’s retaliatory moves.
In the United States, Donald Trump dismissed inflation concerns and claimed that tariffs have brought billions of dollars to the country. On social media, Trump issued a harsh warning to China: tariff withdrawals may face a 50% rate hike starting April 9.
“China is the biggest abuser among them,” Trump said.
India’s tariff response
Despite being caught in the firefight, Goyal said India applied for an average tariff on American goods at only 7-8%, and many of the tariff lines targeted by the United States did not import Indian goods at all.
“Our application for tariffs on the United States could be seven or eight percent. That’s not huge,” he said.
He stressed that India will achieve bilateral trade agreements with countries that respect fairness and rules-based systems. While refusing to disclose the status of the talks with Washington, Goyal added that India’s economy is resilient and has limited dependence on exports. He noted that the rupee remained stable and Indian stocks were least affected by Trump’s tariff blitz.
“Indian stocks are lucky enough to be at the bottom of the market table under Trump’s disruptive policy impact,” he said.
“Refloat” instead of retreating
Goyal said opposing fear of globalization, saying that the world is not dispersed, but repositioning around a more fair trade principle. He believes that the goal should not be to build walls, but to build a system of players without cheating.
“We are not in an era of globalization, but in an era of refloating,” he said.
He also expressed concerns about the entry of Chinese automaker BYD into India, given the lack of trust in China’s history. Although India remains open to its partnership, Goyal makes it clear that they must be transparent, mutual and moral.
(Input with TOI)
