India should not yield to pressure while negotiating trade deal with US: Amitabh Kant

India should never lose its strategic autonomy, never yield to pressure while negotiating trade deals with the US, former G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Friday, while suggesting that the country should look at a long-term perspective and behave in a calm and collected manner.

Speaking at the Business Today India@100 event, Kant said India should use trade-related uncertainties as a unique opportunity to carry out very vigorous reforms in the economy.

"We still have 20 days for these (US) tariffs to kick in. We should never yield to pressure, but we should negotiate in a very rational manner, in a sensible manner, and I think there is plenty of time to be able to arrive at an agreement," he said.


On August 6, the United States announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on all Indian imports, on top of an existing 25 per cent duty, taking the total duty to 50 per cent effective August 27.

The White House said the measure was in response to India's continued purchase of Russian oil.

"My view is that we should never lose our strategic autonomy. We have never lost that strategic autonomy, even during the Cold War period.

"And India should never bend, but we should behave in a very cool, calm and collected manner, as is being done at present. And we should look at a long-term perspective on this," Kant said.

The former NITI Aayog CEO also said there is a critical need to simplify the goods and services tax (GST) regime and eliminate unnecessary rules and procedures -- especially at the state level.

"Even startups are taking too long just to register. My key message: no rules, no policies, no laws more than two pages," he said.

Kant also pitched for radically improving the personal income tax on which a lot of work has already been done.

US President Donald Trump's "dead economy" jibe, he said India is anything but a dead economy because India is the fastest-growing large economy.

"We are the fourth largest economy in the world.

"We will shortly be the third largest economy in the world, more than anything else, India has carried out very major structural reforms in its economy," Kant said.

Kant suggested that the government should give a massive thrust to travel and tourism, because it is tariff proof.

"We should be getting tourists from abroad, because... there is no tariff," he pointed out.

Noting that India is bigger than 24 countries of Europe, Kant said every state of India must have its brand and every state must push for tourism.

Kant emphasised that India needs just 12 champion states growing at 10 per cent to lift national growth to 9 per cent.

"You already have growth coming from the south and west. Now the opportunity lies in the east... These are mineral-rich states. There's no reason they should not be growing at 9-10 per cent per annum," he said. PTI