Date:10/12/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/10/stories/2005121002920500.htm

Back WTO Ministerial: House panel presents list of dos and don'ts

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Dec 9

WITH the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the WTO set to begin next week in Hong Kong, the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Commerce has urged the Indian team to insist upon combining all subsidies on farm products being doled out by rich countries into single box and slap countervailing duty of equitable amount on all agri products.

In its report on India and the Sixth Ministerial, tabled in Parliament today by its Chairman, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, the Committee said that the most rational approach would be to ask for the total abolition of domestic subsidies and export subsidies of all kinds in the developed countries, before developing countries themselves are called upon to undertake further obligations of tariff reduction.

Stating that India should stress on negotiating a suitable definition of special products (SPs) that appropriately reflect its needs and circumstances, it said that special safeguard measures (SSMs) should cover all agricultural products, including special products.

The mechanism for triggering SSMs should be a combination of both the price and volume basis.

India should negotiate for a significantly lower level than the proposal of an import level of 125 per cent of average imports over a recent period as a volume trigger for safeguards.

On non-agricultural market access (NAMA), it said that India should have the flexibility to decide the number of tariff lines it wants to commit to reduction in an identified sector.

India should not agree to any proposal that asks for increase of tariff bindings to 100 per cent tariff lines.