Representatives from the agriculture, dairy and engineering industries on Wednesday expressed their concern over the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement saying they would face great challenges on its implementation. In a meeting held at the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI), representatives of the industries under the leadership of Mitesh Modi, convenor of representation cell of SGCCI and a chartered accountant, took part. “RCEP will affect all the industries. The government should improve infrastructure, provide financial assistance to industries and reduce interest rates of loans. The SGCCI will make representations to the government on these,” said Modi. Rajnikant Marfatia, former president of SGCCI associated with the textile industry, said, “China will dump its products in Indian market at cheaper rates. The business of small players will be majorly affected. To sustain, small businessmen will have to come on to a single platform and form a cluster to produce standardised items. A representation should be made to the government for non-tariff barriers.” Rohit Mehta, former president of SGCCI, said, “Attempts are being made by consulates of China and other countries in India to do trade with India. We don’t see our consulate in other countries making such attempts. Our manufacturing industries are surviving on the quality of production but with RCEP, the industries will collapse. The government should come up with procedures of the licence, exporting products from India.” Seeking exemption of dairy, textile and agriculture industries from RCEP, dairy industry representative Himanshu Mehta said, “In the local system, cattle rearers supply milk to the small dairy mandalis (societies) and from there it reaches bigger dairy mandalis. Due to logistics issues, the cost of produce increases unlike in other countries where large quantity of milk is produced in a single farm. Our dairy industry cannot compete with other countries.” Sandeep Duggal from the textile industry said, “With RCEP, our production market will suffer and our country will become consumption market. We also see hope that we have an opportunity to export our products to China and other 14 countries with zero per cent duties. If our Indian products are not sold in other countries, then business in India will collapse.” Pointing out that China was intending to increase the sale of its products in India and other countries, Pankaj Trivedi, SGCCI MSME sector chairman, associated with the engineering industry, said, “Engineering production is already declining in India. Technology should be upgraded to sustain the industry by manufacturing quality products. The sector will also have to suffer a lot with the RCEP agreement.”
