The Hindu : New Delhi News : `India must reduce tariff rate'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`India must reduce tariff rate'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, NOV. 24 . Asking India to go in for the right mix of unilateral, bilateral and multilateral strategies while formulating its trade policy agenda, noted economist Jagdish Bhagwati today said India should reduce its tariff rate not just with countries with which it has signed a free trade agreement but also with the rest of the world to bring in efficiency into the economic system.

While addressing a session on "Trade Policy Choices Before India: Doha et al", organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in the Capital, Prof. Bhagwati, who teaches at Columbia University and is also a Senior Fellow at the US-based Council on Foreign Relations, said at the unilateral level, India should continue the process of reducing peak tariffs.

On proposed FTA with the US, he said the FTA would lead to a large amount of trade diversion largely due to the fact that India's average tariff was about 20 per cent.

Reducing this to zero would lead to a substantial advantage to the US at the cost of other more cost-competitive countries.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi