The Hindu Business Line : Agri Ministry identifies 80 products for lower tariff cut

New Delhi March 15 The Commerce and Agriculture Ministries are apparently at loggerheads over the number of farm commodities that the country would designate as "special products" (SP) in the ongoing negotiations to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha Round.

This is even as international pressure is mounting on achieving a breakthrough in the trade talks by end-June.

The Agriculture Ministry, according to official sources, has identified around 80 tariff lines to be categorised as SPs. This, the Commerce Ministry feels, is on the higher side and has sought to be drastically pruned down.

"They have not specified any number, but are clear that 80 (at six-digit level of Harmonised System code) is far too large and reduces flexibility for negotiations," the sources said.

The WTO's Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December 2005 had allowed developing countries to self-designate an "appropriate number of tariff lines" as SPs, qualifying for lower tariff reduction commitments over a longer implementation period.

While being guided by the criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development, the SPs were subject to a ceiling of a still-to-be-defined percentage of all agricultural tariff lines.

The 80-odd items listed by the Agriculture Ministry account for just 12 per cent of the 690 or so agricultural tariff lines at six-digit classification. However, they cover most cereals, edible oils, fruits and vegetables, besides dairy products, spices coffee, tea and even liquor. The only major products left out are sugar and cotton, while the other non-SPs are not important from the trade point of view.

"The Agriculture Ministry's stance is that crops on which one lakh or more families are dependent should be termed SPs. But there is also pressure to be flexible, so that the talks make headway," the sources added.

The US has submitted that SPs should be limited to "no more than 5 tariff lines". Even Thailand, a so-called developing country, has called for a transparent selection and limiting the number of SP lines.

If the Doha Round is completed by end-June it will help the US President, Mr George Bush, to seek fresh Congressional approval for "fast track" authority in negotiating trade deals.