Cautious reaction to EXIM policy

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 31. For entirely different reasons, the two major political parties, the BJP and the Congress, have reacted rather cautiously, to the expected, but nevertheless dramatic, exim policy announced today by the Minister for Commerce, Mr. Murasoli Maran.

Both major parties want to study the policy documents in detail before giving their comments. The BJP cannot afford to be critical, for it is the leader of the ruling coalition, and the Congress cannot be critical either, for by signing the WTO agreement in 1994, it ushered in the policy under which all quantitative restrictions on imports stand removed at midnight tonight.

The only major critical voice has come from the Left parties which see in this the end of the domestic small scale industries and the start of slow death for Indian agriculture. The All India Forward Bloc said as much when it described the exim policy as the ``exit policy for small scale industries and agriculture.''

The Left parties - the CPI(M) and the CPI - have been warning for sometime that the WTO was nothing but an elaborate trap designed and executed by the eight or nine most developed nations to usher in an era of increasing gaps between the rich and poor nations, and between the rich and poor in the poorer nations. If any one policy has marked the end of the so-called socialist economic policy era in India, it is the new WTO regime which comes into force tomorrow.

The BJP has on several occasions recently expressed its worry, especially on the effect the new policy may have on agriculture. But for the moment it has been satisfied with the increase in import duties on some agriculture products like edible oils, coconut and coffee announced by the Finance Minister in the Budget. The party is also confident that ``if necessary'' the Government would raise these duties further to prevent any adverse effect of imports on domestic producers.

The Congress Party in its resolution at the recent plenary session in Bangalore pointed out forcefully that it ``fell to the United Front Government to negotiate the phase-out of quantitative restrictions on all imports by April 2003.'' But before this could be negotiated the U.F. Government fell, and the ``BJP-led coalition Government, capitulating to external pressures slashed this time schedule without taking the nation into confidence and agreed to bring forward the phaseout of QRs on all imports by April 2001.''

The Congress view is that if Indian industry and agriculture are not as well prepared for the competition that has arrived, the BJP-led Government has to take the blame.

The Congress has been expressing worry about the effects of the new policy on India's agriculture and the small scale industry.

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