Cii Paper Identifies Eu Non-Tariff Trade Restrictions
A paper prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry has identified several non-tariff barriers in the way of Indias exports to the European Union. The paper is being circulated to Indian missions in EU countries and to the Union ministries concerned to draw attention to this problem.
The items that face the maximum barriers include agricultural commodities, textiles and garments. Other exports are being hurt by new barriers, being erected on thegrounds of human rights and environment protection. According to the CII note, the major barriers exporters face include import policy, export subsidies, testing and labelling rules, health and sanitary regulations, preferential trade agreements, child labour guidelines and recurrent use of anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures.
Anti-dumping investigations in EU against Indian exports, which began in 1990, resulted in a sharp increase in duties in 1995-96, with duties up to 27.5 per cent being levied on some fabrics.
Restrictive trade policy instruments, it is argued, have also affected exports of leather and leather products (with a share of 22 per cent in 1995-96), marine, meat and poultry products, milk and milk products, fish meal, tea and coffee, and some categories of manufactured products.
The paper points out that India has a large trade deficit with the EU, though this has been decreasing. It is said that developed nations, which account for the bulk of the transactions in the global market, take recourse to trade restrictions in an authoritarian manner whenever their domestic industries feel threatened.
The developing countries are hence in a precarious relationship with the developed nations since they depend on them for market access, supply of technology and finance. The large number of anti-dumping charges against Indian textiles are a non-tariff barrier to protect Europes weak textile industry, as pera note of the textile ministry. According to the ministry, Europes textile industry has been rendered incompetitive in recent years and Eurocotton has been at the forefront of a campaign to protect EUs industry by lobbying to restrict extra-EU imports.
A commerce ministry study has also identified the European Unions restrictions on fish imports; discrimination in imports of mangoes, bananas, potatoes and grapes by the US, EU and Japan; the multi fibre arrangement and textiles barriers by EU and the US; tobacco imports into Japan; and milk and milk products into EU as some of the barriers faced by Indian exporters.