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Leaders of Indian domestic industries have voiced strong concerns over the demands made by developed countries in the NAMA negotiations at the WTO.
They warned if the proposals are adopted, India's small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in sectors such as chemicals, textiles and clothing, industrial machinery and electronics and electrical components as well as auto and auto components would be hit hard.
The Indian industrialists are especially worried about the developed countries' demands on three areas of negotiations -- sectorals, anti-concentration and re-manufactured goods. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has sent a delegation to the WTO for the week. It includes members from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, and the Automotive Components Manufacturers Association of India. The delegation is holding talks with industry associations from EU, US, South Africa and others.
CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said in the meeting with the counterpart associations, the CII delegation has indicated their concerns on the three critical areas of NAMA negotiations and in services. On sectoral negotiations, Banerjee said the proposals on sectors proposed by US and other developed countries will adversely impact sensitive industrial sectors in India. SME would be the hardest hit. Many of the tariff lines, which were left unbound after the Uruguay Round were from many of these sensitive sectors.
On the proposals to include an anti-concentration clause in the flexibilities available for developing countries, he said Indian Industry is completely opposed to any caveats on flexibilities. The present text does not reflect development imperatives of developing countries and therefore should be dropped from the texts.
Expressing CII's concern with negotiations on re-manufactured goods, he said this issue should not figure at the multilateral level, since there is no consensus even on the definition of re-manufactured goods. Banerjee also called for strong market access proposals from developed countries on services. He said the Services Signalling Conference must lead to meaningful trade liberalisation commitments in Services from developed countries, especially in two modes of supply of interest to developing countries, i.e. Mode I and Mode IV. (Source: Third World Network)
July 25, 2008
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