Goyal calls Asean FTA 'silly', conduit for Chinese goods

FTA talks with New Zealand may end in 3-4 months

- MUKESH JAGOTA

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that it was "silly" on India's part to sign free trade agreements with Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) and other developing countries that are its direct competitors.

Some of them over time become conduits of Chinese products, he remarked.

"Many of whom (developing countries with which India entered into FTAs) have now become the B team of China. So effectively, I have opened up my markets for goods that find their way from China into India," he said at the Future Frontiers Forum in London.

This is the most candid statement from a senior NDA government functionary, denouncing the FTA with Asean, although the widening of India's trade deficit with the bloc after the pact has often been highlighted, including in academic circles.