Illinois [US], October 3 (ANI): Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday (local time) paid floral tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Sculpture in Skokie, Illinois, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, recalling the Father of the Nation's ideals of non-violence and cleanliness and adding that "every Indian looks up to him with pride."

In a video posted on X, Goyal said Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy had left an "indelible mark" on India's history and continued to define the Indian ethos.

"Every Indian looks up to him with pride. A person whose philosophy has left an indelible mark in our history and whose great ideals, whether it is cleanliness or non-violence, really define the Indian ethos," Goyal said.

Highlighting Gandhi's global influence, Goyal referred to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who drew inspiration from Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence.

"Martin Luther King, in fact, in this beautiful land, followed the ideals of Mahatma. Each one of us is inspired to work on the principles that Mahatma Gandhi left behind," he said.

Goyal was in the United States in connection with the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he participated in discussions on global trade and the multilateral trading system.

During the meeting, Goyal raised India's position on the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) principle and said India could not support making MFN treatment conditional on obligations chosen by some members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"At the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting Session on the Most-Favoured-Nation Principle, I stressed that the MFN treatment guarantees that the smallest trader receives the same terms as the largest," Goyal said.

He also reiterated the need to preserve the balance of the multilateral trading system, saying this would strengthen confidence, predictability and inclusiveness.

Earlier, Goyal called for a WTO-compliant approach to address trade distortions and structural excess capacity. He said concerns over dumping and predatory pricing should be addressed through established multilateral rules, including anti-dumping and countervailing duties based on evidence and subject to judicial review.

Goyal also said India was a domestic-demand-driven economy serving around 1.4 billion people and did not have structural excess capacity in the sectors identified by the G20 Presidency. (ANI)