India on Monday lifted the ban on importing toys from China provided they conform to international safety norms.
"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.
India's import bill contracted for the first time in almost nine years during January 2009, led by crude oil and capital goods, which constitute nearly half the total imports.
The commerce ministry-promoted Spices Board is getting into retail by floating a company to market spices in India and abroad.
With regards to continuing the anti-dumping duty on import of raw silk from China, the Commerce Ministry has ordered a sunset review investigation by the Central Silk Board in the matter. In face of the pending investigation, the duty has been extended for another year up to January 1, 2009. The silk growers in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir are concerned that this exercise may lead to opening up the silk imports from China.
The government will not stop companies from filing fresh applications seeking permission to set up special economic zones. However, it will not process any fresh applications until it clears the backlog of over 360 pending proposals.
French dairy major Groupe Danone has offered to pay the Wadia Group euro1 million ($1.34 million) as compensation to use its Tiger brand in international markets.
A closer look at the data reveals that a lot of the items are not part of this calculation. The notable ones include buffalo meat, marine exports, raw cotton, and plantation crops such as tea, coffee, rubber, etc.
Barn is a curing structure where tobacco leaves are processed to produce the FCV tobacco used mainly by cigarette manufacturers. However, the board's proposal will first have to be approved by the commerce ministry before being sent to the finance ministry for funds.
In a major relief to Indian information technology (IT) companies operating in Australia, Canberra has agreed to amend its domestic laws to stop taxing offshore income of such Indian companies, as part of the free trade deal inked. This may lead to savings up to $200 million each year for over 100 Indian IT companies operating in Australia. "The Government of Australia has agreed to amend the domestic taxation law to stop the taxation of offshore income of Indian firms providing technical services to Australia. "This will resolve the issue that the Indian government has raised about the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) between the two governments for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income," said a commerce ministry official.
The government on Saturday imposed a minimum export price (MEP) of $800 per tonne on onion exports till December 31 this year with a view to increase availability of the vegetable in the domestic market and contain prices. The decision will come into effect from October 29. Besides, the government has also announced the procurement of additional 2 lakh tonnes of onion for the buffer, over and above the 5 lakh tonnes already procured.
The commerce ministry has allowed the technical expert group headed by former Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Chief R A Mashelkar to correct the "technical inacuracies" in the patent law report and re-submit it within three months.
eGOM is likely to reconsider the 5000 hectre SEZ land ceiling limit in the coming month.
The decision has come in the wake of allegations of plagiarism against the Mashelkar panel report.
Amidst controversies, global IT giant Hewlett Packard has decided to drop its plans for a Special Economic Zone in Bangalore
"We will write to the Centre to scrap the eight proposals pending for approval while we will not notify the four (SEZs) that are already approved. About the rest three, we will take up the matter with the Centre to denotify them," said Chief Minister Digamber Kamat.
The government on Friday the proposals of telecom giants Motorola and Foxconn, and Singapore-based reality major Ascendas to join as partners in the Special Economic Zones coming up near Chennai.
This decision will come as a relief to Essar's multi-product port-based SEZ project in Hazira as well as of Adani Group's zone in Mundra, which the revenue department felt was not built on vacant land when it was notified, and hence it had violated the law. Both the zones are in Gujarat.
India is considering making concessions on the five-year standstill period for duty cuts on crude and refined palm oil
The proposed Foreign Trade Agreement between India and Asean got a boost today as trade ministers of Asean countries agreed to India's proposal for reducing the negative list to 490 items
Exports from India to Pakistan increased by 95.63 per cent to $1.3 billion in 2006-07 against $690 million in the previous fiscal. Imports from Pakistan in the same year were worth $320 million, an 80 per cent increase over the year-ago figure of $180 million. Within the SAARC block, India has been the biggest trading partner of Pakistan in the last six years. According to analysts, India's share in Pakistan's total trade over the last six years stands at almost 50%
CA Computer Associates India Pvt Ltd, which has an approval for setting up an infotech SEZ in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh, has informed the commerce ministry that it is withdrawing its application.
India's exports jumped 45.76 per cent to $33.28 billion in August on account of healthy growth in segments like engineering, petroleum products, gems and jewellery and chemicals, even as the trade deficit widened to a four-month high of $13.81 billion.
These imports grew 89 per cent to $8.39 billion in May.
Faced by criticism on its special economic zone policy, the government is preparing guidelines for acquisition of land from farmers for setting up SEZs.
The highlights of the export package was the increase of drawback rates by an average 2 percentage to 3 percentage points with retrospective effect from April 1.
Government said on Wednesday it has extended by one year the in-principle approval to Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai special economic zone but asked the promoters to cut the size of the zone to 5,000 hectares in line with the new rules.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said his ministry is contemplating a plan to have people from industry on-board to facilitate on issues relating to economic diplomacy.
The survey, conducted by the commerce ministry, covered eight export-driven sectors.
The first meeting with the owners and bankers was held in Kolkata on Saturday for the closed gardens in West Bengal and Assam. The rehabilitation package was approved by the commerce ministry recently.
