The Hindu Business Line : `Joint paper of US, EC and Canada soft on tariff peaks'

THE Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has indicated that it was opposed to the introduction of any new "ambitious, harmonising" formula for reduction of industrial tariff that would go soft on tariff peaks or tariff escalations maintained by the developed countries.

The US, the European Community and Canada have, in their recent joint paper to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on `non-agricultural market access: modalities', held that the modalities should include a simple, ambitious, harmonising formula applied on a line-by-line basis with a single coefficient of say (x).

Stating that such a formula would be a "harsh departure" from the formula suggested by the Chairman of the non-agricultural market access (NAMA) Group in the mid-May draft, Mr Y.K. Modi, Senior Vice-President, FICCI, said that the approach suggested by the joint paper of the US, EC and Canada is soft on tariff peaks and tariff escalations maintained by developed countries.

"We would like to retain the essential characteristics of the NAMA Chairman's earlier formula i.e a coefficient weighted by the country's average tariffs— which is obviously to our advantage," Mr Modi said in his address at a seminar on "Reflections on Cancun Ministerial of WTO: Issues and Options" organised by FICCI, and SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry here.

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