Large trade deficit and rupee decline against the US dollar are putting pressure on the CAD, and these steps are likely to have a positive impact on the external sector.
Fernando de Mateo, the chairman of the WTO Council for Trade in Services, released the report on services on Monday. The report asks member countries to commit to providing market access in sectors where many trade barriers exist. Draft texts on agriculture and non-agriculture market access have already been released.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Gopal K Pillai said the agriculture text proposals on the special safeguard mechanism were not acceptable to India. A country can use the SSM to impose up to 50 per cent additional import duty on farm products which have seen a surge in imports.
The EU also feels that Tamil Nadu has adopted a restrictive practice for imported liquor. Significantly, a similar complaint by the trade bloc at the WTO led to the elimination of additional Customs duty on imported liquor in 2007.
As attempts are stepped up to "steamroll" World Trade Organization (WTO) members to agree to a package of commitments in the Doha trade negotiations by Wednesday, it's time to assess what India is going to secure in agriculture, market-opening for industrials, services and other areas.
Services attracted the most FDI during the first eleven months period of 2015-16.
Economic Survey says Services Sector Negotiations at WTO Crucial.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has declared the dates for its examinations.
'We have the geographic advantage, demographic advantage, we have the necessary technical skills.' 'We just have to get all of these together. Then, we can very well compete.'
The 72-year-old master strategist ensured that the Congress's internal conflict ended and took on the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shivraj Singh Chouhan -- the state's longest ever serving chief minister.
A World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitrator on Friday pronounced that Antigua and Barbuda can slap trade retaliatory measures against the world's mightiest power - the United States - to the tune of $21 million because of the loss of benefits the two countries suffered due to the restrictions imposed by Washington on cross-border supply of gambling and betting services on the Internet.
The US on Tuesday made an offer to reduce its overall trade distorting subsidy to $15 billion. India's commerce and industry minister on Wednesday rejoined the crucial negotiations to break the Doha deadlock after his government won a confidence vote in Parliament on Tuesday.
The meeting with Xi is being held amid the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.
The chance of ministers meeting next month to push forward the so-called Doha round of trade talks increased yesterday after diplomats said they had made progress on setting goals for the negotiations.
Ahead of the G-8 meeting in Tokyo next month, WTO negotiations have picked up pace in Geneva with a strong expectation of receiving support for a Doha deal from leaders of industrialised nations such as US, EU and key developing countries like India and South Africa. Though India is not a member of G-8, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be attending the meeting along with heads of other four 'outreach' countries that include Brazil.
India has made it clear that it will not relinquish the leverage on agriculture and NAMA until a services deal is finalised by the WTO.
'Being one of the 150 million upper middle class consumers, I can vouch that the average expenses on white goods or clothing are minimal. Indians are not consumerist by nature,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
"It will become clear in the next few days whether the US and other developed countries are serious to conclude the Doha negotiations, which have dragged for seven long years," a senior commerce ministry official told PTI. India along with other members of the G-33 (a group of countries with protective interest) is apprehensive of the US exerting pressure on the negotiating group to cut the number of Special Products.
A draft circular issued by WTO Committee on Rules Chair and Uruguayan Ambassador Guillermo Valles Galmes states that the process of Zeroing -- used by the US to calculate the dumping margin, which is the difference between the local price in the exporting country and the export price -- could be allowed in certain circumstances.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath left for Geneva on Wednesday to attend a meeting of the G-20 alliance which will make renewed efforts to work out a global trade deal on the Doha Round of WTO negotiations.
India said on Wednesday developed countries were still not willing to fulfil their commitments under the World Trade Organization agreements and warned this could put the entire global trade at risk.
The commerce ministry is currently firming up the annual supplement to the FTP, which is likely to be unveiled in April. Referring to the export performance during 2007-08, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said, actual export was likely to remain short of the target of $160 billion. The exports during the year were likely to reach a level of $152-155 billion, he added.
India's agriculture ministry has identified a list of around 80 special products that should get tariff treatment as part of the World Trade Organisation's current Doha Round negotiations.
'New Delhi and Washington are now on the same page, on dealing with growing Chinese assertiveness, across the entire Indo-Pacific region,' notes Ambassador G Parthasarathy, Chancellor, Central University of Jammu.
Nobody can rightly argue that the WTO or the external world is primarily responsible for the woes of our farmers.
The US has hailed India's recent move to withdraw the additional duty on beer, wine and distilled spirits, saying it was a positive step.
The country could be a major beneficiary from greater market access in services unlike other developing nations, said the working paper authored by H A C Prasad, senior economic advisor in the ministry. India is Asia's third largest economy with a size of nearly $1 trillion. Services contribute about 61 per cent of GDP and the sector is growing at double-digit rates.
Dealing another blow to WTO's Doha Round, crucial talks between four major players at Potsdam in Germany failed today as India refused to yield any ground on giving market for farm products to rich countries.
Does intervention by central banks in the currency markets, with a view to keeping the home currency weak and help the exports, constitute a subsidy? Some US legislators think so.
India is giving priority to boost trade with European Union and foresees no difficulty in signing a free trade and investment agreement with EU, notwithstanding wide differences between the two sides in the WTO over the Doha Round of trade talks. India and EU are negotiating a free trade and investment agreement aimed at phasing out and eliminating import duties on a large number of trade items.
Narendra Modi and Barack Obama will ponder over ties twice over, says Nayanima Basu
Trade ministers of four key World Trade Organization members -- India, Brazil, the US and EU -- will make another attempt in Brussels later this week to bridge the gaps on the contentious issues of farm subsidies and market access.
Calculators have been exported to India from China below the normal value
In Andhra Pradesh, a maximum of 2,044.15 hectares of land are lying vacant.
France on Friday warned India that the proposal to replace additional customs duty on wines and spirits with countervailing excise duty at the state level will weaken New Delhi's position
In the absence of progress on services negotiations in the WTO, India is sending a team of officials to Europe to strike a deal in the services area with the EU under the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement.
P Chidambaram said to be able to play a meaningful role in the global governance, the G-20 agenda should be sharper and focused only on those issues on which it can make a distinctive contribution, particularly, on economic and financial matters.
Rich countries should bring down tariffs on goods that developing countries want to export to them for achieving objectives of the Doha Round of trade talks at WTO, President A P J Abdul Kalam said on Friday.
Imports too dipped by 23.1 per cent to $25.41 billion in the month under review as against $33 billion in April 2015.
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