"End dual standards on quality"

..The director general of foreign trade (DGFT), L Mansingh, . called for an end to dual standards on quality "� one for exports and the other for domestic market. For a country of India's size, with immense potential for growth in exports in various sectors, the share in global trade should be higher than the targeted one per cent by 2007.

However in order to realise this, a few bottlenecks like poor product quality and packaging need to be overcome, according to Mansingh.

Addressing an exporters meet, organised by the southern regional chapter of Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation (Fieo), Mansingh said that uniform quality without distinguishing between the domestic and the foreign markets was the key to gaining confidence as well as an edge in the international trade. In this regard, he pointed to the performance of China and Hong Kong which account for over 3.6 per cent and 5 per cent market share in global trade respectively.

The DGFT said the exports in dollar terms had been growing at a healthy rate of 12 per cent, and so far this year the growth rate was 12.83 per cent. "We're doing well in all segments, except in a few traditional sectors," he observed, without naming the textiles sector which had been lagging on the exports front.

Mansingh was all praise for the export promotion initiatives of the Andhra Pradesh government. Unveiling the draft export policy prepared by Fieo for Andhra Pradesh, he said the state which was showing a good growth in services segment should also look at education on which the Exim Policy had laid thrust for the first time.

The state which has several construction companies could also do better in the area of project exports, he said.

Taking cognizance of the exporters' concern over the appreciating rupee, he said it would benefit the country in the long run as there was still a huge trade deficit with imports far exceeding exports.

However, he pacified them, saying market dynamics would allay their concerns over the rise in rupee value in due course of time.

On the standards being laid for export goods by foreign countries, Mansingh said it could be justified in cases where India was not a leading player. However, in those segments like two-wheelers wherein India had the leading edge, he wondered why the country could not lay its own standards which should be accepted by the importing countries.

On the services sector earning a good name for the country abroad, Mansingh said he had noticed a perceptible change in the domestic sector as well in this regard.

Even in the government segment, ports were competing with each with better services to woo cargo for exports and imports. He particularly mentioned the combined efforts of various government and quasi government bodies to promote trade at the Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier, Fieo president Rafeeque Ahmed in his welcome address said that India was losing its competitiveness on account of the strong rupee. He appealed to the government to bring down the cost of borrowing as well as transactional costs for the exporters.

Sudhir Sanghi, the president of Association of Export-Oriented Units of Andhra Pradesh, said that the interest rates for exporters were far higher than those abroad. He also pointed to the huge gap between formulation and implementation of policy support for exporters in the country.