By Neha Arora
MUMBAI (Reuters) – India is trying to secure greater access for its steel exports through free trade agreement talks with various countries, federal trade minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
“I am working on at least 10-12 FTAs with countries or block of countries like the European Union… and in every one of them we are working to see how we can get greater access for our cost-effective and high quality steel sector,” Goyal said at an industry event in Mumbai.
India is negotiating separate trade pacts with multiple trading partners, including the United States, European Union and the UK, as Asia’s third-largest economy resets its global trading terms in the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs.
Uncertainty around U.S. tariffs has spurred fears of trade disruptions and roiled markets across the world.
On the issue of imports of metallurgical coal, a key steelmaking ingredient, minister Goyal urged domestic steel mills to protect their supply chains.
Earlier this month, New Delhi launched an anti-dumping investigation on imports of metallurgical coal from countries such as Australia, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan and Russia.
(Reporting by Neha Arora in Mumbai and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
