Pressure is on India to eliminate duties on sectors like auto, pharma, chemicals, electronics, gems and jewellery for giving developed nations real market access.
According to officials, developed nations, including the US, European Union, Japan and Canada, are mounting pressure on India to come to the negotiating table at the World Trade Organisation on eliminating duties on specific sectors.
These nations want India to join negotiations on sectoral initiatives under non-agricultural market access category.
In the proposed talks, certain sectors would be culled out from the entire list of goods. Thereafter, the negotiations would decide a specified period for tariffs
on these items to be brought down to zero.
However, the government and the industry are against such sectoral initiatives. At present, 11-12 sectoral initiatives have been taken. For instance, Japan and Norway are keen on elimination of duties in marine products, while Canada and New Zealand in forestry products.
The other nations pushing for elimination of duties in sectors like auto, auto components, pharma, chemicals, engineering goods like hand tools, electronics and sports goods include US, EU, Japan and Hong Kong.
As an incentive to developing nations, the rich countries offer them flexibilities like exempting sensitive products from the category meant for eliminating duties. Concessions also include a longer phase out of tariffs for the developing nations.