By Dawne Parris in India
A senior official in the Indian government has criticised some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) for biting the diplomatic hand that feeds them.
Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles, Piyush Goyal pulled no punches on Monday as he cautioned these nations to be careful about who they allow to influence them, as decisions made now could “come back to bite” in the future.
Speaking with a media delegation from 19 LAC nations – including Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Suriname, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago – at his office in New Delhi, he said while there is room for trade with and investment from India, support cannot be a one-way street.
“I think the Latin American countries and the Caribbean, or ACP countries, should start recognising what’s good for them and not come under the influence of developed countries,” he said in a no-holds-barred question and answer session with the 35 senior journalists and editors who are guests of the Indian government.
Adding that many times these nations make policy decisions without fully understanding the implications, Goyal added: “Very often, they look at their immediate problem or benefit and think that that’s good enough for them. Today, when I look back and see some of the decisions India made 30 years, 40 years ago – maybe at that point in time they never imagined that India could ever aspire to be a developed nation – … they took some decisions [maybe thinking] ‘we will always be poor’…. They are costing me dear today, some of those decisions.
“Similarly, I appeal to all of your countries and your political leaders not to get under the influence of some ideas which today may seem like you got away, but tomorrow may come home to bite.”
Goyal, who had earlier started his interaction with the media delegation by highlighting his country’s story of growth – which included projections that the South Asian country was on track to become a fully developed, US$35 trillion economy by 2047 – stressed that trading relations between India and ACP and LAC nations “can be huge”.
Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar (centre) with other officials from his ministry.
The minister made specific mention of the pharmaceutical industry in India which he said could help reduce healthcare costs in LAC countries.
“Pharma is a low-hanging fruit. Indian pharma can help you come out of the high cost of healthcare. We have the best of professionals, we have the best of medicines, we have the best of pharma products that take care of 1.4 billion people. We came out with some of the best vaccines in India during COVID,” he said.
Barbados was one of 49 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa that received tens of thousands of doses of India-manufactured COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, during the height of the pandemic.
Goyal said assistance to the region could be even greater.
“We can even now help you with your pharma industries in a big way, we can help you with textiles in a big way. So that all these products which you’re dependent on some countries for at high prices can come down and help you conserve your resources,” he said.
However, the commerce minister was forthright as he told the group that he was unhappy with many LAC countries for not supporting his public stockholding (PSH) programme under which millions of Indians are given free foodgrains every month.
He pointed to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Peru who he said are “active” members of the Cairns group “constantly attacking India for its public stockholding (PSH) programme”.
The group of 19 agri-exporting countries have complained at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that India’s PSH programme is highly subsidised and the farm support that India gives hurts the food security of other countries. They allege that foodgrain bought at minimum support price (MSP) if offloaded in the global market, can distort prices, and they have called for a cap on support measures.
The matter was raised as recently as last week.
“You can’t be selective,” a tough-talking Goyal said on Monday. “You can’t say you want a free trade agreement, you want to expand relations, you want to have friendly relations, you want us to open our large 1.4 billion people market for you, and buy goods from you, or open our market for services from you, and at the same time try and hurt India when we are trying to ensure the stability and adequate food grain for the poor in India.”
Journalists at the meeting with Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar.
Stressing that the PSH programme ensures that 800 million people get food grain every month as Prime Minister Narendra Modi – whose government will face the polls in a few weeks – was adamant that “nobody should go hungry”, the commerce minister added: “If you want our trade, if you want to do business with us also, you want to have friendly relations on trade, you want to expand our trading relations, but you want to hurt our common man’s interest or poor people’s interest, it makes it difficult for them to coexist.
“We do have trade with some of you…but when you hurt me in my public stockholding programme or oppose me at the World Trade Organisation when we’re finding solutions to that, then….I haven’t even bothered to look at many of your countries’ trade with India because it has to be a two-way affair. It can’t be one-way traffic.”
In a separate interaction with the journalists less than two hours later at his office, Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar addressed trade between India and LAC countries. Like Goyal, though not as explicit about the connection between support and assistance, he stressed the need for improved relations with those nations.
“It is not that there is no interest in trade with Latin America. Our trade with Latin America is about $50 billion every year. $50 billion is a lot of money,” he said. “We are a growing trade partner in Latin America but we also have other issues on which we work…. If you ask me, ‘What more do we want?’, I want good relations, I want better relations, I want more relations, deeper relations. I would like to see more tourism, more trade, more political cooperation, more investment, more journalists – that is what I would like to see.”
Responding to questions about airlift, he said he wanted to see direct flights between the region and India but acknowledged that would take some time.
“All the airline companies in this country are now private so it is for the companies to make those decisions. We will encourage them…. We would like to see more flights between the Caribbean, CARICOM [the Caribbean Community], Latin America and India.
“At this time, Indian companies have about 1 000 new aircraft which they have ordered. They’ve been introduced and they are coming into the inventory. So I would say, maybe in two or three years we will see many more flights,” he said.
