India should demand abolition of tariff rate quota and draw up a special safeguards strategy, says P K Vasudeva
The government has formed an inter-ministerial group to assess the impact of removal of the remaining quantitative restrictions (QR) on imports. The action seems to be reactive but, a strategy need to be evolved to face the QR impact on industry, especially Small-Scale Industries (SSI). The commerce and industry minister, Murasoli Maran has stated that the group will include representatives from the commerce, agriculture and SSI ministries.
A number of industries have already been facing stiff competition from the import from developed countries. There have been instances of large-scale dumping of cheaper imports over the last three years when there was a big slump in commodity prices world over.
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In pre-1990, there were QRs on imports of about 8,000 items. The figure came down to 2,700 items in 1997 during the Exim Policy 1992-97. Earlier, the Indian government had reached an agreement with major trading partners European Union, Japan, Australia, and Canada other than the US to phase out the QRs by the January 1, 2003.
However, the US insisted on an accelerated phase out on the ground that India