Saturday, Dec 28, 2002
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By Our Special Correspondent
This was disclosed here today by the Commerce and Industry Minister, Arun Shourie, while referring to negotiations on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and public health which have reached a stalemate in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). He was addressing a meeting of the Board of Trade where the chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs M. K. Zutshi declared that in a major initiative to ensure hassle-free environment for exports, the Customs will allow export and import consignments to go through on the basis of self-assessment from March 31 next year under the electronic data interchange (EDI system. Mr. Shourie also told the board members that India's concerns on special and differential treatment were well reflected in the reports prepared by the chairmen of various committees that had been set up to go into the issues following the Sydney mini-ministerial. During the interactive session, an official release says, he had a useful exchange of views with trade and industry in the run up to the forthcoming Exim policy and assured that the various suggestions received would be given due consideration in formulating policy. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) President, A. C. Muthaiah, expressed confidence that the export target of $80 billion by 2007 could be achieved provided certain critical measures were taken for accelerating exports. He said the need was to focus on agri-exports, strengthen manufacturing industry, provide world- class infrastructure in special economic zones (SEZs) and give a thrust on services. He advocated the Look East Policy through free trade agreement with ASEAN as well as greater cooperation with APEC and aggressive pursuit of national interest in the WTO. The Confederation of Indian Industry President, Ashok Soota, flagged issues relating to export growth, market access, export credit and regional issues. Pointing out that achieving a one per cent share of world trade by 2007 would require $7-8 billion exports annually for the next five years, he suggested that target markets be identified and market and product wise action plans should be drawn up. He also expressed concern over rising protectionism in the developed countries targeting the IT sector, especially in the U.S. and European Union. Assuring members that the Government is fully alive to such issues, Mr. Shourie underlined the need for Government and industry to work together in this regard. He indicated that the concerns over the recent New Jersey Bill preventing contracts from being outsourced to India had been conveyed to the U.S. authorities. Several industry representatives also expressed concern over the high cost of export credit which eroded the competitiveness of Indian exports. They suggested that policies announced by the Reserve Bank of India regarding the interest rate on export credit should be implemented by all banks. They also emphasised the need to continue with duty neutralisation schemes that were only refund of duties paid and not an incentive. The President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, Rafeeque Ahmed, sought transparency in fixing drawback rates and urged the government to restore income exemption under Sec.80 HHC as a measure to augment manufacturing capacity.
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