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India faults West on high tariff, barriers on exports

India on Monday faulted the developed world for imposing high tariff on competitive products from developing countries, saying that it was facing 'unfair tariff and non-tariff barriers' in steel, textiles, clothing and leather products.

"We are not in favour of inclusion of non-trade issues such as labour and environmental standards, which may furnish scope for misuse of non-tariff barriers," Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said, but emphasised that India was ready to talk with an open mind on all issues relating to global trade.

Inaugurating a two-day conference on 'Concerns of the developing countries in the WTO regime', Vajpayee asserted that incomplete agenda of the Uruguay round should be first completed before starting any new round of trade negotiations and emphasised that India's position was shared by many developing nations.

"Unmet promises and unfulfilled obligations of the developed nations made in the Uruguay Round have cast the legitimate concerns of the developing nations into a sharper focus in the run up to the Doha ministerial conference," he said and cautioned that it should not be a 'repeat of Seattle Conference'.

"We are also concerned about the high tariffs imposed by developed countries on those products in which developing countries have a competitive advantage. For example India faces unfair tariff and non tariff barriers in steel, textiles clothing and leather products," Vajpayee said.

Pointing out that the Uruguay round did not bring about trade liberalisation in agriculture to any appreciable extent, Vajpayee regretted that "the expectations that the trade distorting subsidies in agriculture given by developed countries would be reduced have been belied."

He said that agreement on agriculture had limited success in opening the markets of the developed world to farm produce from developing countries and cautioned that Indian farmers would not like the "WTO to expose them to unfair competition from subsidised exports and thereby undermine their livelihood security."

While emphasising the need to take many steps to make Indian agriculture and small scale sector more competitive, Vajpayee said that India at the same time "would like to see all unfair barriers" to its farm exports removed.

Vajpayee's comments assume significance in the wake of efforts by developed nations, particularly the US, to persuade India to agree for inclusion of new areas like competition law, labour and environment in the WTO.

The prime minister also cautioned that there should be 'no misappropriation' of the biological and genetic resources and traditional knowledge of the developing countries under the intellectual property rights agreement.

The patent applications should reveal the country of origin of biological and genetic resources and traditional knowledge used in the product or process for which the IPR is sought, he demanded while recognising that protection of IPR was a legitimate concern of both developed and developing nations.

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