India, US sign pact for lifting import curbs

WASHINGTON, JANUARY 11: After months of protracted negotiations India and US inked an agreement for a 15-month phase-out of import curbs b...

WASHINGTON, JANUARY 11: After months of protracted negotiations India and US inked an agreement for a 15-month phase-out of import curbs between the two countries.

Announcing this on Monday, US trade representatives Charlene Barshefsky told newsmen that tariff restrictions on half of the 1,400 odd items India maintained on imports from US would be lifted by April 1, 2000. On the remaining 714 items the import curbs would be lifted by April 1, 2001, she said.

India had originally maintained what has come to be known as quantitative restrictions on imports from United States in as many as 2,700 items. This included agriculture and textile items.

As per the WTO agreement India had to phase out these import curbs and it had so far dismantled it on over 1,300 items. The curbs were maintained for balance of payments purposes.

On the phase-out of the remaining 1,429 tariff lines, there was a dispute between India and US over the phase-out time schedule.

With the rejection of New Delhi’s plea by the WTO appellate panel in September last, the two countries concluded the bilateral agreement here recently.