A policy of adopting tax breaks with respect to the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy is not the future as it is simply not sustainable,Christian Haeberli,a senior research fellow at the World Trade Institute in Berne,Switzerland has said. Haeberli has been a part of the Disputes Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the last 15 years and is presently attending the Gujarat National Law Universitys 2nd International Moot Court Competition. He told The Indian Express: I dont think India will in the long run develop with such regions. India has started liberating its economy rather late; to be honest,very late. He added: In WTO legal terms,I consider tax rebate and holiday policies to be a grey zone,because it really depends on how it is formulated,how the tax cuts,excise duty remissions and the import duty remissions for the free zones are formulated. It also depends on how far it is a disadvantage to their other domestic producers,and whether these advantages can undercut real market prices. Asked about the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),Haeberli said the particular episode over essential and life-saving medicines (particularly the Anti-Retrovial Treatment for HIV) had a lot of hidden trade issues like import duties which has not appeared in the public debates. He added that WTO cannot be accused of being unfair to developing countries because it is not a development organisation. The fact is that the developing countries have signed many plans of tariff reductions .nobody had the knife on their throat really. Nobody can force India. Besides,India is a founder member of this club. It has the highest tariffs in the world for many products. India has not even limited its tariffs for almost half of its industrial products. That means you can still increase tariffs for those products, he further said. He took the middle path on the question of US agricultural subsidies (amounting to 19 billion dollars per year) blamed as the reason for the collapse of the Doha talks. He said it will be impossible for the US negotiators to accept the demands of the developing countries and lower the subsidy to 10 billion dollars. The Congress will never ratify such a deal. But I am also aware of the sensitivity of the Indian agriculture sector. I have lived here for three years, he said.
