Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who is attending the G20 ministerial meeting in Sorrento, Italy, on Monday, to give more impetus to trade ties with other nations’ held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from South Korea, Australia, South Africa, the US, Brazil, China, and the European Union, among others.
He also met trade ministers of the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Canada, and Mexico, as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala one-on-one.
As per government officials, Goyal met with nearly 15 ministers to advance India’s trade position and negotiated bilateral and multilateral agreements.
At the meeting, Goyal made a renewed pitch for a Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and also highlighted that India is working towards the success of the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference in November-end. Goyal strongly sent the message of correcting the historical wrongs against developing countries rather than carrying them over.
To help more countries, especially middle and low-income nations, to gain access to vaccines, India and South Africa last year submitted a joint proposal for waiving some sections of the TRIPS agreement, including copyrights, and patents.
Goyal is scheduled to speak in a session on Wednesday.
The meeting comes at a time when India is trying to ink free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries such as Australia, UK, the EU, and UAE.
India will take forward the FTA talks with the newly elected government in Canada and accelerate the existing FTA review with South Korea.
In addition to this, the other objectives of the meeting will include pitching India as the most trusted global trading partner, building robust supply chains, and urging other countries to invest in India.
