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August 11, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report August 11, 2001 |
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India: Zoellick's WTO claims exaggeratedBS Economy Bureau India on Friday defended its stand against a new trade round, even as senior government officials picked holes in the arguments put forth by the United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick at the industry forum Thursday. The Indian response was clearly provoked by the USTR's outburst on Thursday, just a day after he had presented a more moderate approach in his meetings with Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran in tackling the divergence in opinion on the Doha talks. Officials also said that the USTR, in his address to industrialists, exaggerated the claim that India was being gradually isolated in the World Trade Organisation. Referring to the July 31 meeting of the WTO general council in Geneva, sources pointed out that 40-45 countries had failed to give their nod to a fresh round. This includes Zimbabwe on behalf of the African group, besides Malaysia and Pakistan. Meanwhile, senior government officials maintained that the USTR had erred in claiming that industrial tariffs in the US were universally lower than that in India. While the average tariff was 3 per cent -- as compared to 30 per cent imposed by India -- the effective tariff on a range of major export items from India was very high. For footwear, the import tariff in the US was 37.5 per cent. In the case of apparel and clothing, it included a specific duty and an additional ad-valorem charge. While for apparel, it worked out to 49.6 cents/kg plus 19.7 per cent, for clothing it worked out to 56.3 cents/kg plus 14.3 per cent. Officials also maintained that the success claimed by the USTR on implementation issues, like in the case of textiles, was "more in letter than in spirit". The US, they said, was not keeping to its schedule to progressively liberalise textile and clothing trade. "More than 80 per cent of apparel and textile imports into the US will continue to be restrained till December 31, 2004. Essentially, they have back-loaded their commitments to protect their own domestic lobby. And, this is based on their interpretation of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing," they added. While Indian textile exports to the US remained stagnant at the level of 3-3.4 per cent, the market share of other competing countries benefiting from regional trade arrangements improved. The share of Mexico increased from 2.3 per cent to 14.7 per cent and that of Honduras from 0.5 per cent to 4.1 per cent. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
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