NEW DELHI: The government doesn’t intend to grant any fresh concessional duty on import of milk, milk products, corn, and vegetable oil other than what India already committed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2004-05, two officials said. While tariff rate quotas (TRQs) are part of India’s market access commitments in the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), as agreed in the Uruguay round, no concessional duty on import of milk and milk products have been undertaken since 2014-15, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) director general Santosh Kumar Sarangi said.
After seven years of talks, the Uruguay round of trade negotiations, including AoA, were concluded in 1993 and formally ratified in April 1994 at Marrakesh. AoA proposed a reduction in import duties by 2000 for the developed nations and 2004 was the deadline for developing countries such as India.
“It is a legacy issue, but India has safeguarded the interests of its agriculture and animal husbandry. Besides, no new TRQs for these items have been granted,” a second official at the commerce ministry said requesting anonymity.
TRQ is a mechanism that allows the import of specific quantities of specified products at concessional duty. Imports of any particular product exceeding that quantity (quota) attract higher tariff rates.
Data on tariff quotas notified by India to WTO reveal that TRQs have not been used since 2012-13 in the case of milk and cream in powder, granules or other solid forms.
“In the last 20 years since implementation, the import of milk and milk products under TRQ have been affected only in three years,” Sarangi said quoting the data. The three years were 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12.
According to the second official, there are various checks under the TRQ mechanism. TRQs can be applied for only by NAFED, NDDB, NCDF, CWC and in the past, these entities have applied for TRQs only on specific inter-ministerial recommendations keeping in view producer and consumer interests, he said.
Source : Hindustan Times
