India's agriculture ministry has identified a list of around 80 special products that should get tariff treatment as part of the World Trade Organisation's current Doha Round negotiations.
The 80-odd items listed by the agriculture ministry account for just 12 per cent of the nearly 700 agricultural tariff lines at six-digit classification.
The WTO's Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December 2005 had allowed developing countries to self-designate an "appropriate number of tariff lines" as special products.
These special products qualify for lower tariff reduction commitments over a longer implementation period.
Officials in the ministry of agriculture said the special products designated by the Indian government include all cereals: rice, wheat, maize, sorghum (jowar) and millet (bajra).
But pulses have not been designated mainly because India has no choice but to import keeping in view domestic production constraints.
Among edible oils, soyabean, rapeseed-mustard and castor are included, but not palm oils - perhaps a 'developing country' concession extended to Malaysia. Sugar and cotton are also notable omissions, despite their confirming to the 'rural development' and 'livelihood security' criteria.
The other special products figuring in the agriculture ministry list include a range of fruits (apples, grapes, oranges), vegetables (onion, garlic), spices and condiments (pepper, ginger, turmeric, saffron), beverages (coffee and tea), dairy products (cheese, milk powder, curd, casein), poultry and other meat, and liquor (whiskey, wines).
Designation of special products under WTO by each developing country is guided by the criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development.
The special products are subject to a ceiling of a still-to-be-defined percentage of all agricultural tariff lines.