India fully WTO compliant, doesn't subsidise exports: Suresh Prabhu

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Union Minister for Commerce and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu on Saturday sought to dispel the notion of other countries that India subsidised its exports.

He said that the government was merely trying to mitigate the adversities of the exporters, which did not tantamount to subsidising of exports from India, specifically farm products.

"It is a misconception that we subsidise our exports. We are fully WTO compliant and not at all violating those", Prabhu said at a chat session organised jointly by Shefexil and a leading business daily here.

He said that OECD countries were giving more subsidies to their farmers, particularly in the export of agriculture products.

Talking about agriculture exports, he said "should it not be so that when India exports its agricultural products to other countries, those importing nations deter themselves from subsidising those items".

Stressing on agriculture, Prabhu said it was important to provide market access to the farmers for which the highest standard of safety was needed to overcome the non-tariff barriers (NTBs).

The government was already working on a craft agriculture policy to double farmers' income, he said.

"The commerce department is already working on the development of standards. The standard in the Western countries is very high ", he said.

Unless the highest standard was not adhered to, it would be difficult to do exports, he added.

He also said there would be no market access and realisation of better prices.

Prabhu also said that the ministry was also working on preparing an integrated logistics plan to reduce costs and increase speed and efficiency.

Earlier speaking at a CII event, he said that the ministry was preparing separate plans for the manufacture of drones and planes in the country.