Lashing out at the opponents of labour reforms, particularly the Congress, the government on Tuesday sought political consensus on the vital issue to enable Indian industry become competitive worldwide and augment its position in the global export arena.
Referring to a recent remark made by the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha (Sonia Gandhi), Jaitley said, "They talk about Chinese goods flooding the country's markets. If you want our goods to flood their markets then let the exporters have same labour laws as China. Don't obstruct labour reforms."
Stating that some state governments had shown openness towards adopting a flexible approach on labour reforms for export-oriented units, he said some serious thinking was required on part of the poltical parties to evolve a national consensus on the issue.
"All political parties should think about it so that our exports can grow and compete globally," he said while addressing a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry seminar on Exim Policy 2003-04 in New Delhi.
He said even the belief that the Chinese dragon has severely dented Indian market was not right and added that India's export to its neighbour has grown by a whopping 86 per cent to over $1.25 billion.
Jaitely said SEZs, which are deemed foreign territory, will have to be backed up with a legislation and added that
The government was working on backing it with a central statutory legislation.
