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E.U. allays India's fears on globalisation
Friday, 14 March 2003, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: European Union (E.U.) Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy Thursday sought to allay India's fears on issues related to globalisation ranging from better market access for textiles to hidden farm subsidies.
"The E.U. and India share many political goals and jointly shoulder the burden in many fields of international affairs. We are keen promoters of the multilateral approach," said Lamy at a meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Lamy said the shared concerns covered "security, fight against poverty, support for democracy, sustainable development, environment and last but not least the international trade policy".
Lamy met Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday and discussed some of these issues.
On a two-day visit to India as a run up to the World Trade Organisation's ministerial meet at Cancun in September, Lamy sought to allay India's fears about the post 2004 scenario when textile quotas would be lifted.
"The E.U. will stick to its decision to end the quota and the E.U. bound tariff will come into play from January 2005. The only change will be the disappearance of quantitative restrictions (QR)," said Lamy.
He said a meeting would be held in Brussels in May 2003 "to study post quota scenario".
Lamy maintained that India "is actually a good example of a country benefiting from a steady and sustainable path to openness". Since the conclusion of the last round of the Uruguay Round of trade talks, Indian exports have more than doubled, he observed.
While the E.U. is India's largest trading partner as a group, India ranks 20th as the union's global trading partner.
Bilateral trade between India and the E.U. is currently around $20 billion annually. India's exports to the E.U. during April-October 2002-03 amounted to $6.38 billion, indicating a growth of over 12 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2001-02.
On the other hand, India's imports from the E.U. during the same period was valued at $7 billion, showing a growth of 22.73 percent over the corresponding period.
To boost agriculture trade with India and other developing countries, Lamy said the E.U was considering a proposal "which would slash our import tariffs by more than a third and our export subsidies by nearly half and reduce hidden farm support by more than half".
These proposals contain specific actions that will give developing countries a better deal, said Lamy.
In return for better market access, Lamy said the E.U. would seek reciprocal access from developed and developing countries.
While developing countries were seeking more access to developed countries, Lamy said they must "also open up amongst themselves".
Source: IANS
Source: IANS