Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India has not provided any duty concessions in the dairy sector under any of its free trade agreements so far, including agreements with the European Union, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. He stated that India’s dairy industry is largely powered by small and marginal farmers who have limited land and only a few cattle. 

These farmers have a very low production and needs to be protected against large farms that Europe, America, Australia, or New Zealand have. He mentioned ‘India has had a very consistent stand in all our FTAs across the world, whether it is European Union, Switzerland... UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand. Never has India opened the dairy sector. Everybody in this room knows it. Everybody in the world knows it.’ 

However, he noted that under India’s foreign trade policy, the government allows foreign companies to bring raw materials or ingredients into India, process them to make high-quality products and then re-export 100 per cent of those goods. That product is not allowed to be sold in the country. He stated ‘So it doesn't hurt the Indian market, doesn't hurt the Indian farmers, but adds to our foreign exchange income, adds jobs to our youth, provides opportunities for our farmers also to possibly supplement for further re-export. So it's a win-win for both countries.’