Delhi should lobby for cut in industrial tariffs at WTO — Assocham

"This move is imperative as the US and EU countries together impose high tariff on 837 products, most of which are of export interest to India," Singh said in the paper designed to beef up India’s stance at the seattle World Trade Organisation (WTO) round.

The United States imposes high basic tariff duty on 238 products, while the European Union does so on 599 products, the Assocham paper said.

Most of these products comprise textiles, clothing, organic and industrial chemicals, marine products, and several agricultural products, it said.

"These products are of export interest to India and other developing countries. An initiative, therefore, needs to be taken for reduction of tariffs in these products by at least 10 percentage points," Assocham said.

"More importantly, a reduction in bound rates is also required," the chamber said in the strategy paper.

"Reduction in basic rates of duty is critically important, particularly in textile products, in view of proposed dismantling of the multi-fibre arrangement," Singh said in the paper.

"Unless these reductions are obtained in textiles, market access would bceome an illusion," he added.

He said Indian negotiators at the WTO should also demand fewer levels of basic and bound rate duty to facilitate flow of trade.

"Besides the customs benefitting from such simplification, our long-term objective should be to move towards one or two levels of basic bound rate of duty for agriculture and industrial products," the Assocham president said.