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| Dairy is sensitive sector; no plans to open up in any FTA: Goyal | | |  Agencies
NEW DELHI, Sept 25: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said dairy is a sensitive sector in India as it involves livelihood issues of small farmers and there are no plans to give duty concessions under any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in this area.
He said India has not given any duty concessions in the dairy sector even to Switzerland and Norway under the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) trade pact, which was signed in March.
With Australia also, he said, the sector was discussed but India clearly conveyed the sensitivities involved in this area.
"Our average holding with the farmer is small. It is 2-3 acre farm with 3-4 livestock whereas Australia's farm and dairy farms are both very large and it would be near impossible for these large and small farms to compete with each other on a common footing.
"We had discussed this issue even three years ago and on earlier occasions also, and dairy is such a sensitive sector that in any of our FTAs across the world, we have not been able to open up the sector with duty concessions," Goyal told reporters in a joint press conference at Adelaide with Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell.
The minister is in Australia for bilateral talks to promote trade and investments.
He said the sector is open for trade but there are certain customs duties imposed on that.
"We have neither opened up dairy for Europe nor planning to open up...nor have we opened it with Switzerland and Norway with whom we have recently signed EFTA trade agreement," he said adding "This is the agreement that Switzerland has signed without any component of dairy in it". Goyal was responding to a question on India's hesitancy on removing barriers to Australian exports in sensitive sectors like dairy.
On CECA talks, the Indian minister said that both the countries are aware of each other's sensitivities.
"So any issue that I can see Australia will be uncomfortable with, I would not like to push, press on that, and likewise our approach has been that if something is very sensitive to a large Indian population given our current status of development, Australia has been very gracious in their understanding of our sensitivities," he said.
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