• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

The World Economic Forum’s Global Enabling Trade Report 2008 released recently has placed India in 71st position in the global enabling trade index, largely due to the tariff barriers adopted by the country.

The country continues to adopt restrictive market access with tariff barriers “representing a more serious impediment than non-tariff barriers”, the reports has observed. With regard to market access, the country has been placed at 105th p osition among 118 countries surveyed in the report. Hong Kong and Singapore have been ranked at the top as these economies are considered most open to international trade and investment as part of their economic development strategy. The index covers four areas, namely, market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure and the business environment. Sweden and Norway followed, and to complete the top 10, came Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand. The US has been ranked 14th, helped by a top-notch transport system, but brought down by cumbersome Customs procedures and the UK has been placed two notches below the US, largely because of its high costs. China comes 48th because imports are subject to severe tariff and non-tariff barriers despite the country’s accession to WTO.

OUR BUREAU

More Stories on : Trends | Foreign Trade

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Rain havoc

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line