India Seeks Increased Steel Export Access in Current FTA Negotiations: Piyush Goyal

India is aggressively seeking better trade terms to increase its steel exports through current Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with several global partners, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stated on Friday.

Addressing a business gathering in Mumbai, Goyal reiterated India’s quality and affordable steel industry requires broader global market access. “I am negotiating a minimum of 10-12 FTAs with a nation or nations such as the European Union. And in all of them, we are negotiating to achieve improved access for our steel sector,” he said.

India, being the third-largest economy in Asia, is renegotiating its trading relationships with strategic partners like the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. All these fall under a total strategy to redraw India’s stance in international trade in the light of changing geopolitics and the uncertainties triggered by the hangover of U.S. tariffs ushered in under the Trump government.

The volatility of US trade policy in recent years has unsettled global exporters and investors alike, and India wants to protect its industries, particularly steel, by securing long-term trade assurances.
Goyal also spoke about the prime concern of ensuring raw material availability to Indian steel producers. He asked the Indian steel sector to protect its supply chains, especially for metallurgical coal, an essential ingredient in producing steel.

Earlier this month in April, the Indian government launched an investigation into anti-dumping on imports of metallurgical coal from nations like Australia, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, and Russia. The investigation is set to find out if cheaply priced imports are pricing local manufacturers out of the market and disrupting market stability.

India’s emphasis on boosting steel exports and safeguarding raw material inputs is a twofold approach to reassert its standing as a low-cost global producer while safeguarding the interests of its domestic sector.

The steel industry, being a prime inducer of industrial and infrastructure expansion, has a lot to gain if India delivers on its FTA objectives.