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India terms US tariff proposal as 'ambitious'

India said on Friday that the proposal of United States requiring World Trade Organisation member countries to eliminate all tariffs on consumer and industrial goods by 2015 was 'drastic and ambitious'.

"The proposal is drastic and ambitious. We will articulate our response in our proposal which will be submitted to the WTO by deadline of December 31, 2002," commerce secretary Dipak Chatterjee said in Delhi.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a round-table on WTO organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Chatterjee said the US proposal, under WTO's market access negotiations for non-agricultural products was not in keeping with the mandate agreed to at Doha.

Chatterjee said several developed countries including European Union had also termed the US proposal as ambitious.

The US had earlier this week announced its intention to submit a proposal to the WTO requiring member countries to eliminate all tariffs in two phases by 2015.

Under the first phase all tariffs which are five per cent or less would be eliminated by 2010, tariffs of highly traded goods would have to be eliminated and tariffs of eight per cent reduced to lower levels.

In the next phase beginning 2010 all tariffs would have to be brought down to zero and India would be among the developing countries requiring to bring in the sharpest cuts if the proposal is accepted.

Spelling out India's approach on the ongoing negotiations, the commerce ministry in a presentation said that it would not foreclose any modality but would emphasise the need for special and differential treatment and less than full reciprocity.

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