The Hindu Business Line : EEPC sore over notified markets under FMS

Major markets
EEPC points out that countries notified for the African bloc account for a meager 10 pc of global engineering goods imports
Wants African countries like South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania to be included in the notified list
It also wants Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Panama to be included

Kolakata , June 23

The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), while welcoming the announcement of the Focus Market Scheme (FMS) by the Government, and the notified markets, has expressed displeasure that the major markets for Indian engineering goods and services have been left out for reasons unknown.

According to the Council, the high freight cost and under-developed network in the identified countries under FMS will not provide the much-needed thrust to exports of engineering goods owing to below average trade volumes, even after factoring in the duty credit facility announced by the Government.

FMS envisages a duty credit incentive on the f.o.b. value of exports.

EEPC has pointed out that 30 out of the 49 countries notified for the African bloc account for only 10 per cent of global engineering goods imports.

It is felt that the public notice has notified those markets, which constitute a meagre 18.94 per cent of global import of all commodities. He said the Latin American region accounts for only 17 per cent of world import of engineering goods, and 43.81 per cent of world import of all commodities. The African bloc accounts for 40 per cent of global imports of engineering goods.

The scheme, already notified by the DGFT, wherein target markets of Latin America and Africa have been included, aims at higher export competitiveness by offsetting the high freight cost and other disabilities faced by Indian exporters in accessing select international markets.

Talking to Business Line here, Mr Rakesh Shah, National Chairman of the Council, has suggested that the major importing countries in the African bloc, like South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania, should also be included in the scheme, if "we have to achieve a quantum jump in exports. South Africa accounts for 24 per cent of global imports, Algeria (10 per cent), Egypt (11 per cent) and Nigeria together account for 53 per cent of global imports of the African continent." He felt if these markets are left out, "we will gradually lose the markets to our competitors, resulting in a serious impact on our efforts to achieve 1.5 per cent of global trade by 2009." He said, in the Latin American bloc, countries like Mexico (51 per cent), Brazil (14 per cent) and Panama (8 per cent) account for 73 per cent of world engineering imports.

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