Although Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has not made any public statements so far, his ministry has been reported to have initiated a review exercise of all free trade agreements in the light of protests and caution being suggested by the domestic industry.

It is indeed a welcome step, but India has signed a couple of bilateral trade pacts without safeguarding its own interests in a comprehensive manners. The approach in the past has been only to focus on the import tariff aspect, whereas rules of origin have come to play a much greater role in today's WTO-guided trade geography.

Thanks to the hurried approach, India today finds itself on a mess in the case of Indo-Sri Lanka FTA. Revenue authorities and ministry of commerce officials will admit this fact that because the rules of origin were not given its due import in the FTA India has not only lost revenue but also helped several domestic units turn sick as a lot of dumping has taken place.

Using the European model of 35 per cent value-addition and sometimes even less, all sorts of products have been imported into the country through the Sri Lankan route. CBEC has plenty of data to indicate that Chinese and European goods are being camouflaged by either repacking or making minor changes and being pushed into the Indian market through Sri Lankan route.

Even as experts and committees of WTO would continue to discuss the possible and empirical frameworks of Rules of origin and India would also continue to participate in such a debate where the issue is between 35 per cent value-addition or change in tariff heading, the most problematic area which has emerged in a big way and our policy-makers are yet put on serious countenance on their face is that of camouflaging goods to evade anti-dumping duty.

Given that India has levied anti-dumping duty on many products but the trend which can be seen is that a significant number of traders have been importing such goods to a third country and, with a minor change in either the packing or stamping, importing such goods to India.

DRI and Customs have made quite a few such cases where Chinese origin goods have been taken to Singapore or Hong Kong but being declared as made in Indonesia and Malaysia to evade anti-dumping duty.

And what helps them in such violation of FTA spirit is the routine manner in which authorised chambers of commerce in these countries issue the certificate of country of origin to traders.

Without taking pain or any sort of inquiry these trade bodies issue the certificates! Rather it is a revenue model for some fo them like Singapore where it is an open secret that their chamber of commerce takes a fee for issuing such certificates. And why not they should be doing it? It is not their responsibility to safeguard our interests if India itself is not concerned!

Given that India is rearing to sign half-a-dozen FTAs in Asia and Latin America, our policy-makers need to thrash out this problem as a major chunk of imports into the country would be through the FTA routes and, any lackadaisical approach would cost us our own domestic industry and the main vote plank of the UPA government which is employment generation.

So, what is to be done? A simple answer to this contentious question could be that instead of accepting certificates of chambers of commerce, India should insist that such certificates should be issued by the revenue department in these countries.

Given that every country has its own forms of taxation and control over the manufacturing industry, revenue departments would be the one which will have the necessary information about whether a particular manufacturer exists or pays any duty or not.

If no such manufacturer exists, no government would risk its own country's reputation by giving a false certificate of origin of goods! Even if one does so, if Indian authorities get some intelligence such issues could be taken up at the time of review and some more safeguard clauses could be incorporated in the treaties.

It is hoped that the high-profile ministry of commerce committee headed by CBEC former Member, P R V Ramanan, on the issues related to rules of origin would take a practical view rather than wasting its time once again on academic discussions at frequent meetings.

Developing countries like India must insist on its their unique experiences rather than following the European or any general global framework which would hurt our own industry and cause revenue loss to the exchequer.

But, will Dr Manmohan Singh's government do something on this front before signing more FTAs?