The Hindu Business Line : India Inc urged to participate in WTO tariff line discussion

THE framework agreement in Geneva on July 31 is an important stepping stone for future round of trade negotiations, and from the point of view of developing countries like India, enormous flexibility has now been created for next stage of negotiations on the development agenda of the Doha Round, which has now been brought on track.

Indian industry has now been urged to participate in the consultative process to go deeper into the tariff lines, which are under consideration for scaling down. The Government is keen that individual product lines are identified by each industry, and the viewpoints conveyed to Government for necessary discussions on the research inputs.

Participating in an interactive session on `India's stand at WTO - Post Cancun issues and unfinished agenda', organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry here, Mr S.N. Menon, Special Secretary, WTO and Trade Policy Issues, Ministry of Commerce, said the powerful G-20 coalition of developing countries led by India, Brazil, China, Argentina and South Africa has now been able to challenge the might of the US-EU alliance, especially in dealing with the key issue of agricultural subsidies (both direct and indirect) reduction by the developed countries.

He said from the trade point of view, it is now quite clear that we should not be afraid of the multilateral route, and the latest agreement has many plus points for developing countries.

Pointing out that Indian agriculture (agri-commodities) was bound to emerge as more competitive if the subsidies to exports are eliminated by an end date, as agreed upon at Geneva. Our defensive rights in agriculture for safeguarding our national food security is being taken care of fully through this framework agreement, he pointed out.

In agri-commodities, Mr Menon clarified that while our bound tariffs are as high as 114 per cent, the applied tariffs were around 38 per cent only, for as many as 695 tariff lines, and "this gives us the huge flexibility in prices, to raise our tariff levels whenever there is any need or trigger point". Tariff reduction would be the highest in the highest range and lowest in the lowest range of items, giving India that advantage through the element of proportionality.

He said special safeguard measures in agriculture have been introduced for the first time, through price and quality triggers, and a category of special products, and all this has been made possible through sustained research being carried out by the experts and institutions commissioned by the Government for this purpose.

Pointing out that multilateral trade route, as opposed to bilateral and regional trade, was still the best way forward for India, Mr Menon said, "we have the protection for providing subsidy to our poor farmers until the developed countries remove their subsidies totally".