Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday visited Tesla's manufacturing facility at Fremont, California, and said that the Elon Musk-owned company would be doubling its auto components imports from India.
"Visited @Tesla’s state of the art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California. Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers & finance professionals working at Senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility. Also proud to see the growing importance of Auto component suppliers from India in the Tesla EV supply chain. It is on its way to double its components imports from India. Missed Mr @ElonMusk’s magnetic presence and I wish him a speedy recovery," said Goyal on social media platform X.
Goyal's visit comes amid reports that India is looking at giving customs duty concessions to Tesla for setting up a plant in the country. In September, Goyal said the company is looking to source components worth around $1.9 billion from India this year against $1 billion in 2022.
"It was an honor to have you visit Tesla! My apologies for not being able to travel to California today, but I look forward to meeting at a future date," said Musk in a reply to Goyal's tweet. Notably, Musk, the chief of the world's largest electric car producer, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in New York and after the meeting Musk had said that he planned to visit India in 2024.
Earlier, the Indian government had stated that it is not looking to frame a separate policy for providing incentives to Tesla, and the company can apply to avail support measures under existing schemes like PLI for auto and advanced chemistry cells.
When asked whether the government is considering duty concessions on completely built-up units to attract certain sections of electric cars into India, Goyal in September had said that "everything we have done has been done equally without any differentiation, without any preferences. This is the government that provides equal opportunity to everybody. So we will come out with a policy".
In August 2021, Musk said Tesla might set up a manufacturing unit in India if it first succeeded with imported vehicles in the country. He had said Tesla wanted to launch its vehicles in India "but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!".
Goyal meets US trade representatives
Earlier during his four-day trip to the US, Goyal met with US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai on the sidelines of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in San Francisco. The two leaders held talks on the IPEF and trade pillars. The bilateral meeting between Piyush Goyal and Katherine Tai lasted for almost 30 minutes.
In May 2022, the United States launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. India joined the IPEF and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the launch event along with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and other leaders from partner countries.
The Union Minister also met his counterparts from South Korea and Singapore and held bilateral meetings with the trade ministers of both countries in San Francisco.
Goyal will also hold a bilateral meeting with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and representatives from various sectors and industries, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. These meetings will focus on addressing trade barriers, promoting investments, and fostering greater cooperation in areas such as technology and innovation.
Additionally, India has been invited to the 30th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting 2023 this week as a 'Guest Economy'. These meetings will focus on addressing trade barriers, promoting investments, and fostering greater cooperation in areas such as technology and innovation.
(with inputs from agencies)
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