'Indian products to get greater market access'

Reflecting on a year which saw surge in exports, passage of the Special Economic Zone Bill and the agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta), the government today said industrial products from developing countries like India would get greater market access as a result of the ministerial declaration adopted at the 6th ministerial conference of WTO in Hong Kong recently.

The declaration provided for reduction and elimination of tariff peaks and tariff escalations, in particular industrial products of export interest to developing countries, an official statement said here.

In agriculture, interest of farmers had been fully protected as the declaration clearly provides that developing countries would be able to self-designate an appropriate number of tariff lines as special products (which are subject to nil to marginal tariff reductions) based on criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural develpoment, it added.

Domestic support given to to farmers in countries like India having a preponderance of small farmers had also been fully preserved, it said.

The official statement said India's merchandise exports grew at an accelerated pace during last year, with exports continuing to record double digit growth durign April-November 2005-06.

It is anticipated that the export target of $92 billion for 2005-06 would be exceeded, as was the case of with $80 billion worth of exports in 2004-05 which "far exceeded" the target, it added. With the passage of the SEZ Bill, the setting up of as many as 71 SEZs have been approved, of which, several were now operational, it added.

Terming the clearance of implementation of Safta as a "landmark decision" it said Safta, yet to be ratified by Pakistan, was aimed at reducing existing tariffs to less than 5 per cent within a stipulated time frame, to boost trade among the Saarc member countries.

However, it added that sensitive products covering agricultural items, textiles, pharmaceuticals, small-scale industries, would be exempt from the trade liberalisation programme.

The signing of a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) between Singapore in June 2005 was higlighted as an important regional trade initiative.

Negotiations for the establishment of an FTA are going on with a number of countries, including the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.