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US economic slowdown not to affect India's farm exports

United States on Thursday said slowdown of its economy would not affect India's agricultural exports and felt New Delhi should liberalise more farm imports after the dismantling of quantitative restrictions

"Many of us had expected India to become more liberal to imports but liberalisation of food products has been more of a mirage especially in view of the measures taken by the government to slow inflow of imports through high tariffs, CVDs (countervailing duties) and bio-security measures," Agricultural Counselor in US embassy Weyland Beeghly told reporters in New Delhi.

Since India's agricultural exports are not price sensitive they were not expected to be adversely affected by the slowdown in the US economy unlike the IT sector where there were expectations of a slowdown in exports.

Beeghly said the Indian government's threat to re-impose QRs as well as appointment of canalising agencies were also deliberate steps to restrict imports.

He said that though all these measures were compatible with the WTO, US had certain reservations.

"We do not support routing of imports through canalising agencies as this excludes other players from the field," he said but clarified that the US government had not decided to take up this issue with India at an official level.

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