The Hindu Business Line : US pressuring India to limit steel exports?

THE US is putting pressure on the Government of India to restrain Indian steel companies from exporting too much steel and steel products to the US market despite the fact that Indian exports are well within the specified limit, Government sources said.

Recently top US Government officials had taken up the issue with the senior officials in the Ministry of Steel and had pointed out that Indian exports have crossed the specified limit last year, sources said.

According to the practice followed by the US, import of any particular commodity from any single country shall not exceed three per cent of total import of that commodity in one year.

This is done to make sure that the US does not become dependent on any single country for any particular product.

In the meeting with Ministry officials, the US officials had stated that the total steel exports from India to the US last year were more than this three per cent limit.

But, sources said, that the calculations made by the US authorities included steel products which are not manufactured in the US and thus do not qualify to be included in the limit.

The limit of three per cent is applicable only for such steel products that are manufactured in the US, sources said and added that if these steel items are excluded from the total export, Indian steel exports to the US market are within the limit.

Meanwhile, the Ministry is focussing on increasing domestic consumption by focussing on the housing needs of semi-urban and rural areas. For this the Ministry will be organising several brain storming sessions over the coming weeks and help the industry develop models, which can be used in rural India.

The first such meeting will be held by the end of this week with the Steel Consumers Council (SCC) which include steel producers, secondary steel users, end users as well as consumers and various steel industry associations.

The Government is optimistic that this year's good monsoon will provide an economic boost in the rural and semi-urban areas and this is the right time to start focussing on increasing the use of steel in rural housing.

"The models proposed to be developed for this purpose will have to be made in such a way that the ethnic looks of the villages remains intact and for that we will be involving various architecture and designing institutions also" sources said.

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