NEW DELHE: Indian commerce minister Arun Nehru Thursday declared in the upper house of Indian parliament that India will not enter into bilateral negotiations either “secret or open” on the Super 301 issue with the U.S. under threat of retaliation.
India is not going to be intimidated or policed by anybody on the question of the country’s sovereignty or economic independence, Nehru said.
The minister made the assertion while replying to a calling attention motion on the reported U.S. decision to invoke Super 301 clause of their trade act against India and the government’s response to the American action. The listing of the country on the list amounts to its becoming an unfavorable partner, with the USA.
Nehru said the intention of the U.S. appeared to put pressure on India bilaterally so that New Delhi’s position was affected in multilateral trade negotiations. Nehru said it was unfair to say that India was indulging in restrictive trade practices vis a vis the US.
Citing statistics, he said accounted for 20.6 percent of the country’s foreign collaborations and had a total investment of Rs 621 crore.
The U.S. presence in the Indian market is “very prominent” compared to other industrialized countries.
Then why, this action (under super 301) he asked on the other hand, the USA had been using legislative measures to protect its markets in the past several decades, he added.
Nehru said but for the quota system India could export textiles to the U.S. worth an additional seven to eight million dollars.
He said the country cannot afford to change its economic policies followed by the past forty years.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 18, 1990
