AUTOMATIC CLEARANCE OF EXPORT IMPORT CONSIGNMENTS
FROM MARCH 31
NO DILUTION OF DOHA MANDATE
ON TRIPS AND PUBLIC HEALTH
BOARD OF TRADE MEETS
In a major initiative
to ensure hassle-free environment for exports, the Customs will
allow export & import consignments to go through on the basis
of self-assessment from March 31, 2003 under the Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) system. This was indicated here today at the
meeting of the Board of Trade held under the chairmanship of Shri
Arun Shourie, Minister for Commerce & Industry, Disinvestment
and the North East, by the Chairman of the Central Board of Excise
& Customs (CBEC), Shri M.K. Zutshi. Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy,
Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, along with Shri
Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary, Shri S. B. Mohapatra, Secretary
(Textiles) and Shri Lalit Mansingh, Director General of Foreign
Trade were present on the occasion. Members of the Board also
welcomed the announcement made by Shri Shourie regarding simultaneous
issuance of notifications along with the Exim Policy.
Referring to negotiations
on TRIPS & Public Health which had reached a stalemate in
the WTO, Shri Shourie reiterated India’s position that there should
be no dilution of the Doha mandate in TRIPS & Public Health
in terms of access to medicines by way of coverage, definition
of disease etc., and informed that India, China, Brazil and the
African group were completely together on this issue. He also
indicated that India’s concerns on Implementation Issues and Special
& Differential (S&D) treatment were well reflected in
the reports prepared by the chairmen of various committees which
had been set up to go into the issues following the Sydney mini-ministerial.
During the interactive
session, the Minister had a useful exchange of views with trade
and industry in the run up to the forthcoming Exim Policy and
assured that various suggestions received would be given due consideration
in formulating the Policy.
Shri A. C. Muthaiah,
President, FICCI, expressed confidence that the export target
of US $ 80 billion by 2007 could be achieved provided certain
critical measures were taken for accelerating exports. This, he
said, could be achieved by focussing on agri exports, strengthening
the manufacturing industry, providing world class infrastructure
in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and thrust on services. He advocated
the Look East Policy through free-trade agreement with the ASEAN
as well as greater cooperation with APEC and aggressive pursuit
of national interest in the WTO. In agriculture, he suggested
that India should go for minimum tariff reduction and seek entitlement
for special safeguards which are presently available only to the
developed countries, besides phase out of all export subsidies
and trade distorting subsidies. He also said that the US proposals
for complete elimination of tariffs and the zero-for-zero tariff
formula propagated by the developed countries were unacceptable
"as we do not have a level playing field". Shri Ashok Soota, President,
CII, flagged issues relating to export growth, market access,
export credit and regional issues. Pointing out that achieving
1% share of world trade by 2007 would require US $ 7 to 8 billion
exports annually, for the next five years, he suggested that target
markets should be identified and market and product-wise action
plans should be drawn up. He also expressed concern over rising
protectionism in the developed countries targeting the IT sector,
especially in the US and the EU. While assuring the members that
the government was fully alive to such issues, the Minister underlined
the need for government and industry to work together on such
issues. He also indicated that our concerns over the recent New
Jersey Bill preventing contracts from being outsourced to India
had been conveyed to the US authorities.
Shri Ramu S Deora,
Shri Satish Dhanda, Shri Navratan Samadria and Shri D.S. Brar,
Chairman, Ranbaxy India Ltd., expressed concern over the high
cost of export credit which eroded the competitiveness of Indian
exports and suggested that policies announced by RBI regarding
interest rate on export credit should be implemented by all banks.
They emphasised the need to continue with duty-neutralisation
schemes which were only refund of duties paid and not an incentive.
Shri Brar said that credit issues and input costs should be tackled
on a war-footing. "Otherwise, with a strong rupee, imports will
become cheaper and exports will become expensive". A suggestion
made by both CII and Shri Brar was that foreign trade data should
reflect services and invisible exports such as IT/software, along
with physical exports. Presently, the data contains only merchandise
exports and excludes export of services which is handled by RBI.
Shri Deora suggested that deemed exports should be treated at
par with physical exports.
Shri Rafeeque Ahmed,
President, FIEO, sought transparency in fixing drawback rates
and urged the government to restore income-tax exemption under
Section 80 HHC as a measure to augment manufacturing capacity
to be able to compete with countries like China. Shri Samadria
suggested that domestic tariff area (DTA) sales by units using
100% indigenous inputs should be given the same tax benefits as
EOUs and SEZs.
Shri Nalin Kohli,
Vice Chairman, Electronic & Computer Software Export Promotion
Council, highlighted the opportunities in hardware for relocation
of units in India and sought special emphasis on services as a
major area for exports. While welcoming the concept of SEZs, he
suggested that since such zones were mainly for larger units,
SEZs could be set up in many cities for smaller companies also.
Along with other members he was critical of taxing exports and
suggested that the word incentive be dropped from the Exim Policy
as the various schemes were in the nature of duty-neutralisation
and could not be termed as incentives. Shri A.J. Tharakan underlined
the potential of seafood exports and the need to attract more
foreign investments in the sector. Ms. Neeraj Ghei spoke of the
tremendous potential of tourism as a foreign exchange earner,
while highlighting the various "self-inflicted" tariff and non-tariff
barriers which were hindering the growth of tourism in India.
She urged the government to treat tourism as an export industry
with the same benefits as were being extended to exports.
Shri T. N. Ninan
and Shri Sanjaya Baru called for new perspectives in the context
of the rising foreign exchange reserves and for a paradigm shift
in focus to trade and not just exports. The Minister responded
by stating that the importance of exports could not be underestimated
merely because of high foreign exchange reserves. "Increasing
exports is one of the important feel good factors in the economy….exports
are an important engine for lifting the domestic industry", he
said.
