New Delhi. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said dairy is a sensitive sector in India as it involves livelihood issues of small farmers and there are no plans to give duty concessions to the sector under any free trade agreement (FTA).
He said India has also not given any duty concessions in the dairy sector to Switzerland and Norway under the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) trade agreement, which was signed in March. He said the sector was also discussed with Australia, but India made it clear to them about the sensitive issues related to the sector.
“Our farmers on an average have very little land. It is a 2-3 acre farm with 3-4 livestock, whereas Australia’s farms and dairy farms both are very large and it would be almost impossible for these large and small farms to compete with each other on an equal footing,” Goyal told reporters at a joint press conference in Adelaide with Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell. “We discussed this issue three years ago and on earlier occasions as well, and dairy is such a sensitive sector that in none of our FTAs across the world we have been able to open up this sector with duty concessions,” he said. The minister is in Australia for bilateral talks to boost trade and investment.
He said the sector is open for trade, but some customs duties have been imposed on it. He said, “We have neither opened nor are planning to open dairy for Europe… nor have we opened it for Switzerland and Norway, with whom we have recently signed the EFTA trade agreement.” He said, “This is the agreement that Switzerland has signed without the dairy sector.” India and Australia implemented an interim trade agreement in December 2022 and are now negotiating to broaden the scope of the agreement through CEPA.
Bilateral trade between the two countries declined from $26 billion in 2022-23 to $24 billion in 2023-24. The trade balance is tilted in favor of Australia. India’s exports stood at $7.94 billion in the last financial year, while imports stood at $16.15 billion.
Australia is the 25th largest investor in India, with foreign direct investment of $1.5 billion between April 2000 and June 2024. Goyal also announced the opening of an Invest India office in Sydney soon to help boost bilateral investments. The two sides want to double bilateral trade to $100 billion in the coming years.