India will not bow down and appear weak in trade deal: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Reacting sharply to the imposition of high tariffs by the US, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said India would not bow down and compromise its self-respect in trade negotiations.

“If any country wants to enter into a free trade agreement with us, we are always ready. But I believe that any form of discrimination affects the self-confidence and self-respect of India's 1.4 billion citizens. Keeping that in mind, we will neither bow down nor ever appear weak," the minister said.

Speaking at the curtain raiser event of Bharat Buildcon, the minister said the government would provide all support to industry in managing foreign trade-related stress.

“We in the Commerce Ministry, through our Missions, are reaching out to other parts of the world, to look at other opportunities which we can capture,” Goyal said, underlining the need for diversification of export markets.

Without naming the United States, the minister said the current situation in international trade is the result of unilateral action.

The United States has imposed a 50% tariff on imports of the majority of goods from India. This includes 25% reciprocal tariff and additional 25% punitive duty for purchase of Russian crude and military equipment. The US is India’s largest importer of goods. High tariffs are likely to badly hit India’s exports, especially the labour-intensive sectors like textiles, apparel, leather goods, metals, chemicals and gems & jewelry.

However, Goyal expressed hope that India’s exports in the current financial year would surpass the year’s numbers. In the financial year ended March 2025, India’s overall exports, goods and services put together, stood at around $825 billion.

“The government will be coming out with a variety of measures to support every sector, both to expand the domestic outreach and look for complementarities in other markets around. Our exports will exceed last year’s exports,” he said.

The minister underlined that India has signed trade deals with several developed countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and the UAE.

He said a free trade agreement is likely to be signed with Oman soon and Qatar has also expressed interest in starting a trade deal negotiation with India.

“Yesterday, Qatar's minister told me that they want to start negotiations...Of course, we are talking to the US for a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). First phase, we have planned to complete by fall (October-November) this year. All these engagements will open up new opportunities, new markets, and new investment possibilities," he said.

According to the minister, the central government is working on a set of measures to support exporters hit due to the US tariffs. The proposed measures include emergency credit line guarantee scheme for MSME, moratorium on export loans to allow exporters operational space without asset downgrades, and extension of export realisation period to ease cash flow challenges caused by longer payment cycles.