Cabinet to ratify SAFTA & discuss WTO HK declaration
29 Dec '05
1 min read
The South Asian Free Trade Agreement will come into effect from January 1, 2006. Its sanctioning will possibly be taken up by the Union Cabinet tomorrow.
The Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Declaration may also be discussed in all likelihood at the cabinet meeting. Commerce and Industry minister, Kamal Nath, who led the Indian delegation at WTO meeting, will present his views to the Cabinet.
At the end of first year, member countries have to lower their tariffs by 20 percent and after seven years, between 0 to 5 percent, reducing their import duties by 15 percent every year. The Least Developed Countries would get ten years to do so, according to SAFTA.
India has a negative list of 884 items but for LDCs it has 764 items. These sensitive items will not attract any tariff reduction.
Specific duties will be converted into ad valorem equivalents on certain textiles items within three years by India. This will help Pakistan to market their textiles.
In the year 2003-04 total exports of SAARC were $4170.5 million and imports were $679.68 million.
marketing@alchempro.com
